Dive Brief:
- Airbnb is in negotiations to acquire social payments service Tilt, according to reporting by TechCrunch.
- Tilt has proven popular with groups like college students in recent years, who use it for booking and funding social events like parties and trips, though the company has faced stiff competition from other players in the space such as GoFundMe, per TechCrunch.
- While terms of the deal are still being hashed out, sources told TechCrunch the acquisition could cost Airbnb north of $50 million.
Dive Insight:
Airbnb initially gained a lot of traction for the simplicity of its service — tapping regular people to rent out their rooms for a night or two on a community-driven platform — and ultimately helped bring home-sharing as a business into the digital fold. But now that the startup is giving established hotel booking services a run for their money, it's been rapidly building out its offerings to become a more comprehensive, end-to-end travel planner. A social payments service powered by Tilt would be just the latest step in realizing this strategy, helping Airbnb users plan and, more importantly, actually fund trips to their destinations.
Social payments is a hot space at space at the moment, allowing for relatively instantaneous money transfers with little legwork involved.
In November, Airbnb announced Trips, a feature offering three areas of focus including Experiences, Places and Homes, giving travelers a single tool to book a room and also conduct most travel planning activities. At Trips’ launch, upcoming features in Flights and Services were also touted, indicating the platform’s functionality was only going to grow.
In late December, news broke that Airbnb was in the early stage of delivering on the Flights aspect, with Bloomberg reporting that the company was developing an air travel booking service. Adding payment capabilities via a Tilt acquisition would likely allow Airbnb to better deliver on the promised Services component as well.
