Airbnb raises $1B in debt and equity from Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners; source: the funding doesn't depend on its performance or a target date for IPO
- Airbnb raised $1 billion in a new round of funding led by Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners.
CNBC
Context & Ripple Effects
Airbnb spent 2015-2017 building its capital base on equity at rising valuations — a $1.5B round, an $1B bank debt facility from JPMorgan, Citi, BofA and Morgan Stanley, then $1B at a $31B valuation with no IPO plans. The pandemic broke that arc: with bookings collapsing, the company turned to distressed-style private capital.
The new $1B from Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners is deliberately unstructured — no performance covenants, no IPO deadline — and it was not the end: within days Airbnb was reportedly in talks for another $500M-$1B in debt, and a week later closed another $1B round adding Apollo Global alongside Silver Lake.
First-order effects
Airbnb gets roughly $2B+ of committed capital inside two weeks without ceding control over when or whether it goes public — buying runway through the travel shutdown without a forced listing into a frozen market.
Second-order effects
Silver Lake and Sixth Street set the pricing template that Apollo then matched in the follow-on round, meaning Airbnb's cost of crisis capital was effectively negotiated against itself across successive tranches rather than in one competitive process.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, late-stage consumer platforms facing demand shocks now have a proven alternative to the IPO window: large, covenant-light private debt-and-equity packages from a small set of crossover funds — shifting leverage over exit timing from founders' bankers to those funds.
The trend: Pandemic-era private credit is replacing the IPO as the emergency liquidity channel for late-stage travel and consumer platforms, with a handful of crossover funds setting terms.
Buying into Airbnb by Silverlake is a smart move. For Airbnb Silverlake is a steady hand who can deploy a lot of resources to help them succeed. Airbnb Raises $1 Billion to Stockpile Cash in Pandemic - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/...
“A source familiar with matter said, “there is no rachet or any other coercive terms. It's attractive for Airbnb.” The source added the funding doesn't depend on Airbnb's performance or reaching a target date to go public.” https://www.cnbc.com/...
Someone out there is still very positive about the travel & hospitality industry. Particularly on shared accommodations in a post-covid world. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://www.ft.com/...
Pricing, valuation relative to the last capital raise? Looks like $26B down from $31B in 2017. But off 40% from January levels. Silver Lake coming in is a bullish data point in terms of coronavirus risk thaw, path to normalcy. https://twitter.com/...
That article came up in this piece about whether Airbnb can survive. I think deciding on a generous refund policy early, when some hosts were trying to gouge travelers by refusing refunds, is rebuilding loyalty that may have been lost. https://www.citylab.com/...
Lot's of second-guessing going on about how COVID-19 will affect future travel: “But there's another possible outcome — that this massive global shock to the lives of millions of people ends up, over the longer term, changing little.” https://www.citylab.com/...
And this at Citylab with many examples of cities across the world where now AirBnB apartments are becoming available for local renters (including Amsterdam) Can Airbnb Survive Coronavirus? https://www.citylab.com/...
Will Airbnb rebound after coronavirus lockdowns? Could the tourism crash help to restore these rental units for local residents to actually live in? So many questions. @FeargusOSull reports: https://www.citylab.com/...
Did MP3s disappear after Napster shut down? Whether or not Airbnb survives, the short term rental genie is out of the bottle. After this passes, it will come back as strong, and with the same issues. Now is the time for regulation to catch up to reality. https://www.citylab.com/.…
The reduction in short-term rental bookings over the next months will affect landlords who crowd out low-cost rentals, and also affect landowners who are making their places richer. @CityLab reports on how one part of the rental ecosystem is reacting. https://www.citylab.com/... …