Homestay aggregator Airbnb is looking to further augment its Experiences with a social digital payments provider Tilt. The rumor mills have recently been abuzz with chatter about the latter being up for acquisition. And it looks like Tilt might have found its perfect suitor in Airbnb, reports The Information. The two technology giants are currently involved in initial acquisition talks.
The discussion of the payments giant being up for sale have been making rounds of the interwebs for quite some time. This is, however, the first instant that a report complete with a suitor and valuation figures has been released. Citing sources privy of the matter, The Information states that the Venmo (a digital wallet provider) competitor is being picked for an amount somewhere between $10 million and $20 million. TechCrunch’s sources, on the other hand, are of the opinion that the transaction value will be north of $50 million.
Though nothing is set in stone yet and the talks are still pretty fluid, so the details of the transaction could vary during finalization. Still, this can be seen as a significant valuation drop for Tilt. The digital payments giant had previously secured a $30 million investment at a massive $400 million valuation in July 2015. Till date, Tilt has secured over $62 million in funding. Its funding rounds have seen participation from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, DCM Ventures, Sean Parker, QueensBridge Venture Partners, Y Combinator, among others.
This news with Airbnb’s involvement comes on the heels of the recent launch of Experiences on the homestay aggregator’s platform. These experiences have been launched to take the haggles of booking their rental place and further expanding it to include a multitude of services as well. Airbnb now plans to act as a one-stop shop that caters to all your travelling needs, including ticket booking, lodging, and touring in the city alongside hosts and locals.
For those unaware about Tilt, it is a digital payments service founded by James Beshara and Khaled Hussein in 2012. This California-based startup was launched with the primary aim of making it easier for individuals to share bills and collect money from a group. Tilt debuted a Pro version of their service as well. It enabled businesses to host, brand, and customize their own crowdfunding experience. Till date, Tilt has been used by more than 500,000 groups to split bills and complete their plans.
And Tilt, who’s been sketching a global expansion plan for its social digital payments app, will particularly be a perfect fit for Airbnb. Tilt has an experience in deploying technologies across the globe and this could enable the homestay aggregator to further its grasp on international markets. Post acquisition, it will be able to merge Tilt’s teams as well as its payments service into its own travel experience tool. Airbnb CEO and founder Brian Chesky has already expressed his desire for the same during his Christmas feedback questionnaire on Twitter.
@shawnnderson @tilt @jjbeshara ask and you shall…
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) December 26, 2016
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