According to a report by TechCrunch, social payments startup ‘Tilt’ is all set to be acquired by Airbnb, the popular community marketplace for people to list, discover and book unique spaces around the world through mobile and web. Acquiring Tilt would not only give Airbnb experience in the payments space in general, but also experience working with payments around social gatherings and events, notes the source.
Sources familiar with the matter say that investors will be getting back about $12 million in cash, but the deal value is tens of millions of dollars higher if employee retention packages are also included, which were paid for in cash and stock. Airbnb will be obtaining the Tilt assets but will keep the app operational for the time being.
Airbnb’s VP of product, Joe Zadeh, has issued the following statement:
“Airbnb and Tilt have a common vision for building community-oriented products that make it easy to bring people together. Tilt’s experience and expertise complement our ongoing efforts to transform the way people travel. By joining forces, we’ll reimagine how groups travel and enhance Trips, our new platform that brings together where you stay, what you do, and the people you meet all in one place.”
With a valuation of $30 billion, Airbnb itself is too expensive to be acquired, which is why there has been a lot of speculation about IPO possibilities.
