Airbnb Raising $100 Million, Company Valued at $1 Billion

If Ashton Kutcher's endorsement in Airbnb wasn't enough to get your attention, maybe this report from Business Insider will do the trick.

According to Business Insider, TechCrunch has some juicy details on the creative startup, which allows average Joes and Janes to rent their personal spaces (such as a room in a house or apartment) online. Those details include a minimum of $100 million in new funding (led by Andreessen Horowitz) for a company that is being valued at more than $1 billion.

TechCrunch adds that the service has “exploded,” growing more than 800% last year. To date, the site has booked 1.6 million night stays. Reportedly, Airbnb places more people in homes in New York on a nightly basis than the largest hotel in Manhattan could hold.

Things haven't always been this good for Airbnb, however. In the beginning, the company struggled to get the support of investors. TechCrunch reports that half of the 20 angels that Brian Chesky (the founder of Airbnb) pitched to in 2008 did not return his e-mails, while nearly everyone else told him it was an “awful” idea, fearing that no one would want to open their homes to strangers.

Looks like they were wrong, eh?