Early investors in the home rental app Airbnb were paid off handsomely on Thursday after the company listed at a record-setting valuation in a year characterized by eye-watering valuations for tech-based companies.
Shares of Airbnb soared on the first day of trading, with investors and speculators pushing the valuation of the tech company past $100 billion to make it the largest initial public offering in 2020 in the United States.
Chief Executive Brian Chesky, whose personal stake in Airbnb ballooned to $11 billion on Thursday, said he was as surprised as anyone regarding a sharp rebound in use of the app in the third quarter of 2020 as more and more people elected to rent properties on the app instead of staying in hotels.
“I don’t think this summer too many people expected to see an Airbnb IPO this year,” Chesky told Reuters. “We were planning on going public, we put our IPO on hold, and this has been the most unbelievable journey. It’s been quite a comeback for our hosts and for what I hope will be travel.”
Airbnb is among a number of high-profile IPOs, including Palantir, Snowflake, and Doordash, which have surged upon offering.
