​Airbnb rakes in the greenbacks, raising $1B

Things are looking pretty flush for Airbnb these days.

The home rental company raised $555 million in an "F" funding round last September and became profitable for the first time in the second half of 2016. And now it's raised nearly $448 million more for that F round, according to a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That means, in total, Airbnb has raised more than $1 billion in a single round.

The home rental service was expected to raise a total of $850 million for the F round, but it exceeded that number. Airbnb was "oversubscribed in this round," a source close to the company told CNET. This newest influx of cash puts the company at an estimated valuation of $31 billion.

But don't expect an imminent IPO for this still privately held company. Airbnb has "no plans to go public anytime soon," the source said.

In just under a decade, Airbnb has gone from a small startup catering to couch surfers to a billion-dollar business with a massive online presence. It lists roughly 3 million homes for rent in more than 65,000 cities in 191 countries, which is more than the top three hotel chains combined.

In this new era of Airbnb, the company appears to be morphing from a home-rental service into a full travel agency. This can be seen through its recent investments. For instance, it acquired both the high-end vacation rental service Luxury Retreats and the payment app Tilt in February and it bought a stake in restaurant reservation startup Resy in January. Airbnb is also said to be developing a flight-booking tool.

Investors have been impressed with Airbnb's potential. The company has raised more than $3 billion in venture backing since its founding in 2008, which makes it the second highest-valued venture-backed company in the US -- trailing behind ride-hailing service Uber, which has an estimated valuation of $68 billion.

As Airbnb continues to grow, so does talk of going public. However, the company is still hammering out legal and tax issues with regulators around the world. Airbnb has both knocked heads and made peace deals with lawmakers in San Francisco, New York, New Orleans, Barcelona, London and elsewhere.

Earlier this week, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky announced the company was giving people who rent out their homes, aka hosts, more of a say in the company's business. As part of this initiative, Chesky and other top company executives will travel to 26 cities around the world over the next three weeks to meet with hosts and discuss their needs.

Batteries Not Included: The CNET team reminds us why tech is cool.

CNET Magazine: Check out a sample of the stories in CNET's newsstand edition.