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| VIEW EVENT INFORMATION: Airbnb |
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Airbnb To Acquire Payments Startup Tilt |
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About the organization Airbnb:
Type: Business
Sub-Types: Website, Social Networking Agent, Hospitality, Lodging, Application Software, Telecommunication, Telecommunication Software, Internet |
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Notable Organizations: Airbnb, Techcrunch
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| We’d been hearing murmurs for a while that Tilt was up for grabs and was talking to a few folks in recent weeks, and in early January we caught wind that the company may be acquired by Airbnb. It looks like the chatter was right. The Information reported today that the company is in talks with Airbnb for an acquisition, and the report jives with what we’ve heard as well.
The move makes sense given Airbnb’s recent expansion into experiences, where it basically wants to go beyond just a lodging booking service to wrap the company around the entire trip. Acquiring Tilt would not only give Airbnb experience in the payments space in general, but also experience working with payments around social gatherings and events — and specifically getting those funded. Tilt was already popular with the college crowd in booking social events like trips and parties, and extending that to Airbnb seems natural enough.
The price, we hear from sources familiar with the matter, is north of $50 million, though the deal is still fluid and things could change. The Information reported that the price may be between $10 million and $20 million. Either way, it’s a significant drop off from the $400 million valuation it picked up in May 2015. Tilt raised around $30 million in that financing round, and in total has raised around $62 million.
To be sure, Tilt faced a lot of challenges in the group payments space. Already active and aggressive in the space was GoFundMe, which looked successful enough to even attract suitors like PayPal, according to our sources. In June last year, GoFundMe picked up a new financing round — that essentially let VCs buy out the company from its founders — at a $600 million valuation. |
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