Off late it seems like the e-commerce market has been haggling all the glory! This is probably why some analysts would agree with the quote – “The grass is always greener on the other side”
Unlisted e-commerce brands like ANI Technologies (Ola), Oravel Stays (Oyo Rooms), and One97 Communications (Paytm) have been making waves in the unlisted market, attracting small and retail investors mainly due to the token value of their brand! [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
About Oyo Stocks
Oyo Rooms (stylized as OYO) is an Indian hotel brand also known as Oyo Homes & Hotels. It is the world’s third-largest and fastest-growing hotel, home, and living space chain, including leased and franchised properties. OYO was founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal and comprised mostly of cheap motels at the time. Over the course of six years, the company grew to include thousands of hotels, vacation homes, and millions of rooms in cities across the world, including India, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Nepal, China, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the United States. SoftBank Group, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Hero Enterprise, Airbnb and China Lodging Group. and others are among the company’s investors.
Ritesh Agarwal founded Oravel Stays in 2012 to facilitate the listing and booking of low-cost lodgings. He switched Oravel to OYO in 2013 after months of study and stays in numerous bed and breakfast homes, guest houses, and small hotels around India.
OYO works with hotels to provide a consistent guest experience in different cities. Ritesh Agarwal won a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship award from Peter Thiel shortly after establishing Oravel Stays. Over 17,000 people work at OYO globally, with over 8000 in India and South Asia. OYO Hotels & Homes is now a full-fledged hotel brand, leasing and franchising properties. The firm claims to have invested in Capex, hired GMs to manage operations and customer service, and created over a million jobs in India and South Asia alone. In addition, OYO has established 26 training institutions throughout India for hospitality aficionados.
September 2018 – raised $1 billion, with the $100 million obtained from Star Virtue Investment Ltd. receiving an RoC filing on February 13, 2019. SoftBank Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia India lead a $1.5 billion Series F investment round in October 2019.
Ritesh Agarwal, the company’s founder and CEO, inked a $2 billion main and secondary management investment round in 2019 through RA Hospitality Holdings (Cayman), backed by global institutional banks and his financial partners, subject to regulatory and shareholder clearances. OYO’s early sponsors, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia India are selling a portion of their ownership to assist the founder to raise his investment and therefore commitment while staying heavily committed to the company’s long-term objective. In 2019, OYO reported a 3.5x increase in revenue for India operations in FY 2017–18, totalling Rs 416 crore, with a marginal loss of 360 crores. In 2018, OYO reported a loss of 330.97 cr which was better than the previous year.
Aditya Ghosh, the former president of India’s largest airline, IndiGo, was appointed as the chief executive officer of the hospitality chain’s South Asia operations in 2018. India and Nepal would be under Ghosh’s command. OYO named Max Healthcare executive director and Rohit Kapoor as CEO of its new real estate companies in November 2018. Prasidha Menon was recruited as OYO’s Global Head of Communications in 2018. Anil Goel, the Chief Technical and Product Officer of Amazon India, was hired by OYO in 2016.
OYO bought Chennai-based service apartment operator Novascotia Boutique Homes in March 2018, marking the company’s first significant acquisition and establishing its foothold in the service apartment and corporate executive stay sectors.
Airbnb and OYO established a strategic collaboration in 2019, with Airbnb investing in OYO and the firm listing its properties on the Airbnb marketplace. OYO started in March 2019 that it would spend $1400 million in its India and South Asia operations in 2019 as part of its efforts to improve infrastructure, technology, and internal capabilities.
OYO announced the acquisition of @Leisure Group, Europe’s largest vacation rental firm, in May 2019.
In August 2019, Oyo announced its first big investment in the United States, partnering with US-based real estate business Highgate to purchase the Hooters Casino Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip for $135 million.