Airbnb, a rental company for privately-owned vacation places, has raised $112 million from investors. The money came from Andreessen Horowitz, which led the round. Also taking part were: DST Global and General Catalyst. The investment round led to a value for the company at over $1 billion, according to CNN Money.

“Over the past three years, we’ve built a community marketplace for unique properties and brought it into the mainstream and into almost every country on the planet,” Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, said in a press release. “Today is a watershed moment – both for Airbnb as a company and for our community – that will enable us to touch new markets and expand our vision to make the world’s most interesting and inspiring places accessible to our users.”

Airbnb has doubled a benchmark of 1 million nights – booked in just four months, the company said. Airbnb has in total booked 2 million nights, has 30 million page views a month, and has had the number of Airbnb Social Connections triple to 54 million since May, the company said.

Airbnb says there is increased demand in Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Brazil for its services.

“The Airbnb movement has changed the way people experience the world,” Joe Gebbia, co-founder and CPO of Airbnb, said in the statement carried by TechZone360 “This investment will help us respond to increasing international demand by accelerating hiring, and the opening of offices around the world, in order to support our growing community on more local levels.”

“The company is defining a completely new category in e-commerce – a marketplace for all kinds of spaces, from homes and apartments to tree houses and yachts,” Jeff Jordan, general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, said in the statement. “Airbnb's explosive growth and passionate community of users reinforce the uniqueness of what they're doing, and in the same way eBay redefined online shopping, Airbnb is redefining the way the world thinks about accommodations.”

Airbnb’s series A investors included: Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and SV Angel, as well as actor and angel investor Ashton Kutcher, according to CNNMoney.

“Airbnb, with its strong management team and engaged worldwide community is on a path to becoming a transformational company,” Yuri Milner, founder of DST Global, added in the statement.

Airbnb was founded in August 2008 and is based in San Francisco. It has listings in over 16,000 cities and in some 186 countries. The listings include diverse private spaces that are rented out by the owners.

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