Airbnb close to a 1.5 billion dollar deal

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Only Facebook was ever able to attract similar funds, as a technology company, in 2012 just prior to its IPO. Uber is also close to attracting a 1.5 billion dollar investment.

A large part of the investment comes from American private equity firm General Atlantic, but Chinese Hillhouse Capital and investment firm Tiger Global have also contributed huge sums. All three are new Airbnb investors and Hillhouse Capital has also confirmed it will invest heavily into taxi service Uber.

The Chinese investment is a very interesting addition as Airbnb is rapidly gaining traction in Asia with mainly Chinese groups interested in using the service to plan trips abroad. South Korea and Singapore are another two growth areas for Airbnb and the company has plans to invest more into the region in the future.

Technology companies like Airbnb and Uber are now getting extremely high valuations, at 24 billion and 50 billion dollars (44.65 billion euro) respectively, which causes fear it might be a bubble waiting to burst.