OYO Rooms, commonly known as OYO, is India's largest hospitality company, consisting mainly of budget hotels. It was founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal and has since grown to over 8,500 hotels in 337 cities in India, Malaysia, UAE, Nepal, China, and Indonesia.
In 2012, then 18-year-old Ritesh Agarwal, hailing from Odisha's Rayagada district, launched Oravel Stays, a website designed to enable listing and booking of budget accommodation. After three months of research and staying in over 100 bed and breakfast homes, guest houses, and small hotels, he pivoted Travel to OYO in 2013.
OYO partners with hotels to give similar guest experience across cities. Shortly after launching Oravel Stays, Ritesh Agarwal received a grant of $100,000 as part of the Thiel Fellowship from Peter Thiel.
In March 2015, OYO raised Series A round of funding $24 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Greenoaks Capital, and DSG Consumer Partners. In August 2015, OYO raised another $100 million from Softbank Group, an existing investor. A year later, in August 2016, OYO raised $90 million from Softbank Group, Innoven Capital and existing investors. In September 2017, OYO announced it had closed a $250 million series D round of funding led by Softbank Group, new investor Hero Enterprises led by Sunil Kant Munjal, Sequoia Capital, Greenoaks Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. China Lodging made a strategic investment of $10 million in OYO in September 2017.
In late 2017, OYO launched OYO Home, an Airbnb-like marketplace for short-term managed rentals. OYO Home has the presence in more than 10 leisure destinations of India including Goa, Shimla, Pondicherry, Udaipur, Kerala etc. In April 2018, OYO launched its first international OYO Home in Dubai.
In September 2018, OYO raised $1 billion. The majority of the funding — $800 million, to be exact — was led by SoftBank's Vision Fund with participation from Lightspeed, Sequoia and Greenoaks Capital. OYO said there is also an additional $200 million that has been committed from as-yet-unnamed investors. The deal values the five-year-old company at $5 billion. Oyorooms came with a new concept of data sharing of staying customer with government authorities
Hospitality firm OYO Thursday said it post over four-fold jump in its hotel sales worldwide to USD 1.8 billion in the calendar year 2018.
It had posted proceeds of USD 0.4 billion for 2017, OYO said in a statement.
"We have had a great year. Globally, we have reached over 4,58,000 fully forbidden lease and franchise keys (rooms) with a realized value run rate of USD 1.8 billion for the calendar year 2018 representing a 4.3x year-on-year growth," OYO Hotels & Homes Chief Financial Officer Abhishek Gupta said.
Currently, the company is prepared in eight countries, he added.
"The proceeds enlargement has been ambitious by strong fundamental commerce drivers notably augment in restricted room supply, 5.7 times increase in stayed room nights and reliable increase in payment incomes," the statement said.
Globally, OYO Hotels & Homes is nearby in over 500 cities across eight countries – India, China, Malaysia, Nepal, the UK, UAE, Indonesia, and the Philippines, with more than 13,000 franchised and leased hotels and over 6,000 homes.
