New venture from Airbnb’s Gebbia raises $41M Series A

Fifteen months after stepping down from Airbnb, co-founder Joe Gebbia’s new startup has raised $41 million in Series A funding.

Samara started in 2016 as a research and innovation team within Airbnb. When Gebbia announced in July 2022 that he was leaving his full-time operating role at the company he co-founded with Brian Chesky and Nate Blecharczyk in 2008, he said it was to focus on a “complementary product to Airbnb.”

Samara is just that – now operating as an independent company that builds small, pre-fabricated houses known as “accessory dwelling units” or ADUs. The company’s first product is Backyard, which comes in studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom layouts that property owners can use to create additional living space or as a rental property.

“Building new homes and expanding existing ones is harder than it should be, slowed down by long permitting processes, high costs and the complexities of on-site construction,” said Mike McNamara, Samara CEO and co-founder.

“Prefabricated ADUs like Backyard enable us to add the flexible housing capacity California needs, giving homeowners space to house growing families, start new businesses, work from home or provide much needed new rental capacity and income.”

The Series A round was led by Thrive Capital, with participation from 8VC, General Catalyst, New Legacy, Ron Conway’s SV Angel and Airbnb, as well as notable angel investors including Brian Chesky, Michael Dell, Nate Blecharczyk and others.

The company said the funding will be used to scale the brand, product offerings and team, with a goal of bringing ADUs to “every backyard in California and beyond.”