Airbnb lists with US SEC, confirms raising $1.5 billion

Securing its position as the third-most valuable privately-owned startup, an earlier report was cornfimed that Airbnb had raised $1.5 billion in filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

After Uber (valued at $62.5 billion) and Xiaomi ($46 billion), Airbnb's current valuation is at $25.5 billion.

The Wall Street Journal had in July reported about the fund-raising. The newspaper also reviewed the investor presentation, finding that the startup had earned $340 million in revenue in the third quarter and is headed towards generating $2.2 billion for 2015, more than the projected amount of $850 million.

The tech startup is a platform through which users can share homes for vacations as hosts in 190+ countries, according to their website.

Their website claims it has more than 2 million listings and more than 60 million guests have used their services.

The company has been battling critics since it posted an ad in bad taste for which it had to later apologise.

The ad said:

"Dear Public Library System,

We hope you use some of the $12 million in hotel taxes to keep the library open later.

Love, Airbnb"

It was posted in San Francisco, where the startup is based out of.

The company is also fighting controversy as commercial agents have been listing themselves on the site for short-term rentals, and a San Francisco ballot was planning on imposing a restriction on it. The organisation had released a set of guidelines it would be following to ensure it would prevent this from happening confirming that users list their permanent residences only.

"Our community — and our business — are stronger when guests are staying in primary residences and interacting with hosts. We will be releasing anonymised information about the profile of the community — including information showing how many hosts are sharing permanent homes — so cities can see if we are walking the walk. Our experience is that our community is very good about making decisions in the best interest of their communities," Airbnb spokesperson Nick Papas told Techcrunch.