Accomable finds a new home at Airbnb

by Startacus Admin

London startup Accomable, a platform to help people with mobility difficulties find accessible properties around the world has been acquired by Airbnb.

Accomable was founded in the summer of 2015 by Srin Madipalli and Martyn Sibley – two childhood friends with Spinal Muscular Atrophy who have travelled all over the world. Frustrated by the difficulty of finding accessible places to stay and reliable information, Srin Madipalli and Martyn Sibley created Accomable to make it easier for everyone to travel, regardless of disability.

That same Summer we featured Accomable on Startacus as a Startup of the Week highlighting that "It’s a great idea - an invaluable service and a startup to most definitely watch!" And it seems that Airbnb agree, with the news at the end of last week that Accomable had been bought by Airbnb.

Srin Madipalli, CEO and Founder of Accomable published a blog / press announcement last week saying amoungst other things: 

"Today marks the start of an exciting and historic new chapter in our mission to make travel accessible for disabled people around the world. I am delighted to announce that the Accomable team and myself will be joining the Airbnb family to share our unique knowledge and expertise to make one of the world’s largest travel communities more accessible, and to enable Airbnb to fulfil its mission to create a world where anyone can truly belong anywhere.

Going on to say that they understand some of the concerns that the Accomable community may have about the transition:

As someone who built Accomable to address a need we all share in the Accomable community, I very much empathise with any nervousness you may have. To address this, the Accomable team and I have spent considerable time with Airbnb’s founding and senior management teams. During our time at Airbnb, we were left in no doubt that Airbnb shares our mission and we are convinced that joining Airbnb provides the best opportunity to take our dream and mission to a global level, using the current reach of Airbnb’s community to work together and make the world more accessible.

A big congrats to Srin, Martyn and the Accomable team. Accomable rasied £300k in May 2016, and if their pitch to the investors included an exit strategy, well we think they surely delivered on that one!!

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• #accomable
• #airbnb
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• #disability
• #travel
• #accomodation
• #accessibility

Published on: 18th November 2017