Airbnb Scores $112 Million in Financing

Airbnb, a website that lets travelers rent rooms in private homes around the globe, has secured $112 million in a second round of financing from Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global and General Catalyst.

Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia said the new financing will help the company expand inteationally and open new offices.

Gebbia and his roommate Brian Chesky founded Airbnb -- or \"Air bed-and-breakfast\" -- in 2008 after renting out air mattresses in their apartment to people attending a San Francisco design conference.

The three-year-old website, which gaers 30 million page views a month, matches travelers looking to rent a temporary space -- from a room in a New York City apartment to a villa in France -- with homeowners looking to pad their eaings or fill a short-term vacancy.

Airbnb, which now has total funding of $119.8 million, offers listings in more than 16,000 cities in 186 countries.

\"Growth has been flat-out explosive, with over 2 million room nights already booked,\" Andreessen Horowitz general partner Jeff Jordan said.

Venture capital investments are on the rebound. VC firms raised $2.7 billion in the second quarter, an increase of 28 percent from a year earlier, according to data from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association.

But the fund-raising was spread across just 37 firms, continuing a trend of VC investment concentrating in a handful of more influential outfits such as Andreessen Horowitz.

The concentration on fewer start-ups is pushing up valuations, industry experts say.

During the 2010 second quarter, 48 firms raised $2.1 billion.