The world’s 3rd largest chain of leased hotels & residences
From a small idea inspired by the Airbnb model, to a $9.6 billion valued company, empowering small businesses with hotels and homes, Oyo took the idea of a quality stay within a budget to another level. How’d it all start though?
Beginnings
2011- 17-year-old Ritesh Agarwal, took a courageous leap with Oravel, his first start-up. Oravel allowed the customers to view the various listings and different budget accommodations of hotel rooms.
May 2013- The teenager was selected for the Thiel Fellowship, where he received a funding of $100,000 (approx. Rs. 75 lakhs), accompanied by the resources and mentorship to create a startup.
First Fundings
June 2013- Later in the same year, and with the same ideals, Oravel stays was relaunched as OYO Hotels & Homes, where ‘OYO’ stands for ‘On Your Own’.
March 2015- It went on to receive major funding of $25 million through some of its investors- Sequoia, Lightspeed India to name a few.
Domestic expansion
April 2015- The company was spreading at a massive pace, and had expanded to Kolkata, Goa, Mumbai and Bangalore. To support this, the Oyo app was launched- customers were now able to book their rooms directly.
July 2015- Another massive investment from SoftBank, a Japanese investor, peaked at 4 times their previous funding- a whopping $100 million. Oyo had the support of one of the most powerful investors in the world.
International expansion
2016- The year started off with hitting the 1 million check-ins, and stretched out their operations to the Asia Pacific region, starting with Malaysia.
2018- This year jump-started Oyo’s international expansion by starting its operations in the UK, UAE, China, Singapore, Indonesia and Dubai.
September 2018- It became a unicorn startup, as it raised funding of $800 million from SoftBank, and added onto its $200 million from existing investors.
Hitting the headlines & being hit by the pandemic
2019- As the company grew, there were some controversies that made the headlines. The company was accused of cheating and fraud by some of the hoteliers. However, it rejected all of these allegations.
2020- With the outbreak of coronavirus, being a hospitality company, Oyo suffered severely. It was noted that revenue and occupancy went down by nothing shy of 50-60% in April. By the end of the year, Oyo still had around $1 billion to fund operations, according to the founder.
Opening stocks?
2021- The company filed the documents for Rs. 8430 crores as an initial public offering (IPO). According to the preliminary registration documents, DRHP, this marked a theatrical recovery for the pandemic- scarred industry.
December 2021- While no official dates have been provided regarding the IPO opening, closing, basis of allotment, refund initiation, and listings, it is most certainly confirmed they will take place in December. By 2022, the company will have reached the primary markets.
Akshadha Gupta
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