A 12-Person AI Company Acquired by Airbnb for $200 Million
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Airbnb announced today the official acquisition of AI startup GamePlanner.AI. While the exact acquisition price was not disclosed, CNBC reported that Airbnb spent approximately $200 million on this deal, marking its first acquisition since going public.
GamePlanner.AI was founded in 2020 but remains in stealth mode, with very little public information available—not even a website. The company currently has only 12 employees and is backed by B Capital, though the investment amount remains undisclosed.
However, GamePlanner.AI's founders are well-known figures in the AI field. The two founders, Adam Cheyer and Siamak Hodjat, include Adam Cheyer, who is a co-founder of Siri. After Siri was acquired by Apple, Adam Cheyer and Siamak Hodjat jointly led Apple's natural language processing team. Later, they founded Viv Labs, which was acquired by Samsung and became the foundation for Samsung's voice assistant.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said in the acquisition press release,
GamePlanner.AI is so special because they combine expertise in artificial intelligence, design, and community. Artificial intelligence will change our world faster than any other technology in our lifetime, but we need to ensure it enhances humanity in a positive way. Airbnb is one of the most human-centric companies in tech, and I believe that, together with Adam and his team, we can develop some of the best interfaces and practical applications for AI. Afterward, Adam and Siamak's team will focus on accelerating selected AI projects and integrating their tools into our platform.
It can be seen that this acquisition is mainly to accelerate Airbnb's AI strategy, with almost no mention of GamePlanner.AI's specific products. I guess it's more of a talent acquisition. For Airbnb, which has $11 billion in cash, $200 million doesn't seem like too much.
Earlier this year, Brian Chesky stated that by the end of the year, we would see a completely new Airbnb, with artificial intelligence (AI) at its core. This includes using AI to improve all aspects, such as personalized room recommendations, booking processes, customer service, and even user reviews, making Airbnb's entire experience comparable to concierge services—benefiting both guests and hosts.
However, Brian Chesky primarily emphasizes the user experience. He said Airbnb is not the best foundational technology company, but it is one of the best interfaces. Airbnb excels in application, design, product interface, and application engineering—these are its true strengths. He wants to emulate Apple's approach: not to be the first, but to be the best:
One thing I love about Apple is that they were never the first. They didn’t create the first smartphone, the first music player, or the first tablet. But when they launched a product, there was no need for anything else.
Beyond AI, Brian Chesky also aims to enhance services around Airbnb's ecosystem. He mentioned that there are currently thousands of companies operating within Airbnb's ecosystem, with over 300 generating annual revenues in the millions of dollars.
Although Airbnb is now a company worth tens of billions of dollars, its early growth was not easy. I have previously shared some of its early growth stories, such as Airbnb's Early Funding Stories, Airbnb's Early Funding Stories Part II, and Airbnb's Three Early Benefactors.
Recently, there have been several high-profile acquisitions of AI projects. Notable examples include Databricks' $1.3 billion acquisition of MosaicML, Thomson Reuters' $650 million cash acquisition of legal tech startup Casetext, and ThoughtSpot's $200 million cash-and-stock acquisition of Mode Analytics. These acquisitions are largely driven by strategic AI positioning.
A few days ago, HubSpot officially acquired Clearbit, a leader in B2B intelligence, for $150 million in cash. Although Clearbit's valuation in its last funding round was $250 million, its total funding raised was less than $20 million.
I found this acquisition case very similar to Atlassian's acquisition of Loom. Both seem to be primarily for data and customers. Loom's last round valuation was $1.53 billion, but the acquisition price was $975 million (less than $1 billion). The final prices in both acquisition cases were approximately 60% of their previous round valuations.
Although there aren't many cases yet, based on the current examples, almost all acquisitions of companies with strong AI attributes show significant premiums over their previous valuations, while traditional SaaS companies with pure data value tend to be acquired at substantial discounts from their last round valuations. This pattern appears to align well with current market conditions.