Revenue isn’t back yet, but Airbnb’s valuation may well be
Following DoorDash’s price bump on its planned IPO, home-sharing company Airbnb said that it, too, would seek to raise more than it initially sought from investors.
On Monday, Airbnb said it’s seeking to raise share prices to between $56 and $60 a piece, up from the previous $44 to $50—valuing the company at as much as $42 billion on a fully-diluted basis. Even on an undiluted basis, Airbnb would be set to IPO at a valuation of some $36 billion—putting it above its highest pre-pandemic price tag of $31 billion. In short: public market investors are excited over Airbnb’s comeback, even at a time when the company’s bottom line has yet to bounce back to pre-COVID times.
In fact, private market investors seem thrilled over many tech IPOs at the moment. DoorDash, with its business model arguably under greater scrutiny from public market investors than that of Airbnb’s, is seeking to double its private market valuation in its debut.
It’s a buzzy time for startups: Pre-pandemic, rounds were being closed at a blistering pace, and now they are being done even faster. This New York Times piece from former colleague and Term Sheet writer Erin Griffith details one investor, Rahul Vohra, that is hearing a pitch and signing a deal all in the same day. Addition’s September investment in security company Snyk, meanwhile, was completed within 48 hours of the duo meeting each other for a deal that valued the company at an $2.6 billion. No small pennies here. Which inevitably raises the question—is it getting too buzzy?
WOMEN IN VC, BY THE NUMBERS, IN THE PANDEMIC: PitchBook, alongside Microsoft for Startups and Beyond the Billion, analyzed the coronavirus’ impact on women founders. It found that the “pandemic has disproportionately impacted female founders and CEOs negatively, despite undeniable, long-term gains in VC investment over the past decade.” In the first three quarters of 2020, funding to female founders dropped 31% compared to the same period a year earlier while funding to all-male teams fell just 16%. Read more.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com