$47 Bn Airbnb To List In US - All You Need To Know About The IPO, Its India Connection & How To Invest

Airbnb Inc. is set to make its debut on Wall Street with the trading of its shares on Thursday at a price that values the home-sharing giant at over $47 billion. Joe Gebbia, Brian Chesky, and Nathan Blecharczyk co-founded the company in 2008 with the idea of renting air mattresses in their San Francisco apartments, and the company now has more than 7 million short-term listings worldwide.The co-founders would not have thought in 2008 that Airbnb would be valued at $47 billion, more than the largest hotel operator, Marriott. The shares will trade on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol “ABNB.” Airbnb raised $3.7 billion in the offering, making it the largest US IPO this year, according to Renaissance Capital, which tracks IPOs. The company’s IPO came just hours after DoorDash Inc. almost doubled from its listing price in its debut trading session, adding to a flurry of consumer-facing web-based companies going public this month in the US market.Airbnb entered India in 2016 and plans to expand its operations as part of its long-term growth strategy, even as the company has lower penetration, but India is a market critical to Airbnb’s success as it is one of the fastest-growing. India, along with China, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and “tens of thousands of smaller markets and remote areas worldwide” are regions where Airbnb’s “penetration is lower,” according to the IPO document.