OYO bags $1 billion in latest round of funding
OYO Hotels, India’s largest hotel chain, has raised $800 million from its existing investors with a commitment for another $200 million to follow. With this it has achieved an evaluation of $5 billion.
The funding round was led by SoftBank with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia and Greenoaks Capital.
The raised capital would be utilized in its overseas expansion with about 60 percent being diverted towards its China operations which started in November last year.
OYO to raise $1 billion in funding from SoftBank, others https://t.co/aS8AUkZQiv
— TOI Business (@TOIBusiness) September 25, 2018
OYO started its overseas operations with first in Malaysia in January 2016 and then Nepal in April of the same year. Just a week back OYO announced its plans to venture into UK.
The company has come a long way since its inception in 2013 having raised approx $1.5 billion in total since then in multiple series of fundings, the last happening exactly an year ago in September .
OYO was able to raise $250 million in that round with Hero Enterprises led by Sunil Kant Munjal entering their existing group of investors. Another $10 million came from China Lodging as a strategic investment.
Founder Ritesh Agarwal was just 19 when he founded the company. Then known as Oravel Stays the company was intended to be an AirBnB clone but it wasn’t long before it evolved into its present form.
Winner of the prestigious Thiel Fellowship, Ritesh hails from Odisha and is a college dropout. He got the inspiration to start OYO from his own poor hotel stay experiences in Delhi where he used to attend events for entrepreneurs as a student in Kota, the hub of coaching for IITs.
