Airbnb has no specific plans for IPO yet: CEO Chesky

NEW YORK Airbnb, the leading online marketplace for short-term lodging, has no specific plans yet to go public, its chief executive officer Brian Chesky said on Monday.

“We don’t have any announcement to make. We are working to make sure that the company is ready,” Chesky said at an event at the New York Exchange when asked about plans for an initial public offering.

“Our investors are very patient and none of them are anxious for us to go public,” he said, adding that the company doesn’t need to raise more money.

Airbnb raised $1 billion in its latest round of funding, valuing the company at $31 billion. The company which operates in more than 65,000 cities worldwide turned profitable in the second quarter of 2016.

As part of its efforts to become a full-service travel agency, Airbnb recently bought a payment startup Tilt and a high-end rental services Luxury Retreats for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Regarding a slew of events including a sexism scandal that has rocked another Silicon Valley startup giant Uber, Chesky said Uber’s chief executive Travis Kalanick was doing “everything he should be doing.”

“He has owned up to every problem, apologized and owned it,” he said, adding that many unicorn executives are still on a leadership journey and are learning on the job. Chesky said he had not spoken to Kalanick about the recent challenges.

“I’m always seeking out to people, smarter than me, for leadership (advice), the more successful I get,” the 35-year old CEO said.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Alistair Bell)