Airbnb Leads New $160 Million Funding for Short-Term Rental Brand Lyric
Can you be both a marketplace and a supplier at the same time? Airbnb certainly seems interested in testing that theory out.
Airbnb is leading a $160 million funding round for Lyric, a San Francisco-based company that manages multifamily apartment complexes and rents out those units on platforms that include Airbnb, HomeAway, and Booking.com, among others.
The Series B investment confirms an earlier report from December when The Information originally reported Airbnb was planning to lead a $75 million investment round in the accommodations brand.
The $160 million round on Wednesday is led by Airbnb, as well as new investors that include Tishman Speyer, RXR Realty, Obvious Ventures, SineWave, and former top Twitter executives Dick Costolo and Adam Bain. Current investors Barry Sternlicht, NEA, SignalFire, FifthWall, and Tusk Ventures have also participated in this latest round of funding, bringing the company's total funds raised to a grand total of $185 million.
WHAT LYRIC IS — AND WHAT IT REPRESENTS
Lyric is one of a crop of newer professional accommodations operators whose competitors include companies like Sonder, Stay Alfred, and others. They're essentially serviced apartment businesses that are licensed to run as a hotel (avoiding regulatory challenges), and they use marketplaces like Airbnb to advertise their accommodations Moreover they rely on technology to wring out efficiencies, manage the guest experience, and eventually grow to scale.
