Ritesh Agarwal, founder of Oyo Hotels and Homes, has marked an investment of $2 billion to increase his stake by three times in the SoftBank-backed Indian lodgings startup that he founded during teenager days.
The company said that Agarwal is set to buy shares from Lightspeed Venture partners and Sequoia India which are the existing investors.
Importantly, the deal will value Oyo at about $10 billion and raise Agarwal’s slice of the company to 30 per cent from about 10 per cent at present.
“It is a very exciting time for Oyo right now as we make great living spaces come alive across all corners of the world from Texas to Tokyo,” Agarwal, who is also chief executive officer, said.
The SoftBank backed hospitality chain Oyo was started by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013. The startup was started from a single hotel to over 8500 hotels at present. It is the fastest growing network of hotels, offline and online.
Oyo mainly signs on hotel owners and then helps them upgrade everything from bathroom fittings to furniture and bedding, and then provides them standardized supplies like sheets and toiletries, and support to train their staff.
It employs hundreds of people in the field who evaluate properties on some 200 factors, from the quality of mattresses and linens to water temperature.
“We remain committed to supporting this world-class management team,” Mohit Bhatnagar, managing director of Sequoia Capital India Advisors, said.
While, other hospitality startups, which are emerging at a fast pace in India includes Yatra, Fabhotels, Treebo, MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, etc.