Airbnb Stock More Than Doubles In Nasdaq Debut 

Airbnb’s stock closed its first day of trading at $144.71 on Thursday, nearly 113 percent above its IPO price.

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The San Francisco-based company raised about $3.5 billion by selling 51.3 million shares of its stock for $68 apiece. It initially set a price range of between $44 and $50, later increasing it to between $56 and $60, and then settling at $68. The company’s stock opened at $146 on Thursday, 114 percent above its IPO price.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbnb was privately valued at around $31 billion. At its IPO price, the company was valued at about $47 billion. By Thursday morning, its valuation had surpassed the $100 billion mark and the company ended the day with a valuation at $100 billion.

By raising $3.5 billion and coming to a $100 billion market cap, Airbnb’s IPO is now the largest tech IPO of the year, surpassing companies like DoorDash and Snowflake.

Airbnb’s public debut comes after a rollercoaster year for the company. While Airbnb said last year that it planned to go public in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic initially hit the company hard. Airbnb laid off a quarter of its staff and raised emergency funding from Silver Lake and Sixth Street.

Among the largest shareholders of the company are Sequoia Capital and Founders Fund.

The company was able to begin recovering by focusing on local travel, and it pushed forward with its plans to go public this year. Airbnb’s IPO caps off a busy year for tech companies coming to the public markets, and follows DoorDash’s public debut on Wednesday.

DoorDash, also a Y Combinator company like Airbnb, closed its first day of trading 85 percent above its IPO price and raised about $3.37 billion.

— This story will be updated with Airbnb’s closing price later today.

Illustration: Dom Guzman