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OYO Rooms OYO Hotels and Homes | |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Hospitality |
Founded | 2012[1] |
Founder | Ritesh Agarwal |
Headquarters | Gurgaon, Haryana, India [2] [3] |
Area served | Asia, Europe and Americas |
Key people | Ritesh Agarwal (Group CEO) |
Revenue | ![]() |
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Total assets | ![]() |
Owners | |
Number of employees | 1,330 (2023) [6] |
Subsidiaries | Motel 6 |
Website | oyorooms.com |
OYO Rooms (stylised as OYO), also known as OYO Hotels & Homes, is an Indian multinational hospitality chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes, and living spaces, headquartered in Gurgaon. [7] [8] [9] Founded in 2012 by Ritesh Agarwal, OYO initially consisted mainly of budget hotels. [1] As of January 2020, it has more than 43,000 properties and 1 million rooms across 800 cities in 80 countries. [10]
In 2012, Ritesh Agarwal launched Oravel Stays as a budget accommodation listing and booking website, later renamed to OYO in 2013. [11] Shortly after launching Oravel Stays, Ritesh Agarwal received a grant of $100,000 as part of the Thiel Fellowship, a two-year program from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. [12] [13]
In November 2015, Oyo signed a term sheet to acquire Zostel's Zo Rooms in an all-stock deal which would give Zostel's founders and investors a combined 7% stake in Oyo. [14] In February 2016, Oyo's biggest stakeholder SoftBank announced in its earnings report that the acquisition was completed. [15] However, in October 2017, Oyo stated that the deal was called-off and the "non-binding term sheet" for the deal had expired in September 2016. [16] Zostel claimed that the term sheet was binding and it had transferred its business to Oyo which in turn failed to transfer the 7% stake. [17] In 2018, Zostel approached the Supreme Court of India, which appointed former Chief Justice of India, A. M. Ahmadi as the sole arbitrator to resolve the dispute. [18] In March 2021, Ahmadi ruled that the term sheet was binding and Zostel was entitled to execute the definitive agreements in the contract. [19] In October 2021, Zostel wrote to the Securities and Exchange Board of India, seeking a stay on Oyo's IPO and claiming that Oyo's "capital structure is not final." [20] In February 2022, the Delhi High Court rejected Zostel's appeal for a 7% stake in Oyo. [21]
In March 2016, OYO acquired the team of Qlik Pass, founded by Rahul Gupta and Rishi Swami, to set up and lead its data science department. [22]
In March 2018, OYO acquired Chennai-based service apartment operator, Novascotia Boutique Homes, [23] [24] to establish its presence in the service apartment and corporate executive stay segment. It acquired Weddingz.in, a Mumbai-based online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors. [25]
In 2019, OYO and Airbnb announced a strategic partnership where OYO would list their properties in the Airbnb platform. [26] In March 2019, OYO announced a ₹1,400 crore investment in its India and South Asia businesses. [27] In April 2019, OYO announced a strategic global distribution partnership with Hotelbeds. [28] The company also announced two joint-ventures with SoftBank and Yahoo! Japan in 2019. [29] In May 2019, OYO announced the acquisition of Amsterdam-based @Leisure Group, a European vacation rental company, for $415 million. [30] In July 2019, OYO announced the acquisition of Innov8, a co-working space in New Delhi. [31]
In August 2019, Oyo made its first major investment in the United States by purchasing the Hooters Casino Hotel, near the Las Vegas Strip, in partnership with US-based real estate company Highgate, for $135 million. [32] [33] In September 2019, Oyo announced the acquisition of the Copenhagen-based data science firm Danamica for $10 million. [34]
In June 2021, Oyo Rooms collaborated with Yatra, Airbnb, and EaseMyTrip to form the Confederation of Hospitality, Technology and Tourism Industry (CHATT), an industry body for the tourism sector of India. [35]
In October 2021, OYO appointed Paralympian Deepa Malik as an independent director on the company's board of directors. [36] In December 2021, OYO onboarded former State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Rajnish Kumar as its strategic group advisor. [37]
In May 2022, OYO announced the acquisition of Europe-based company Direct Booker, valuing the latter at around US$5.5 million. [38]
In September 2024, Oyo agreed to buy American budget motel chain Motel 6 and its hotel brand Studio 6 in an all-cash deal worth $525 million from Blackstone Inc. [39]
In 2019, OYO had over 17,000 employees globally, [40] [41] of which approximately 8,000 were in India and South Asia. OYO Hotels & Homes leases and franchises assets. The company invests in capex, [42] hires general managers to oversee operations and customer experience. [43] OYO set up 26 training institutes for hospitality enthusiasts across India in 2019. [44]
The company's current and former investors include SoftBank Group, Didi Chuxing, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Hero Enterprise, Airbnb and China Lodging Group.
In September 2018, OYO raised $1 billion, of which the RoC filing for the amount of $100 million raised from Star Virtue Investment Ltd. was made on 13 February 2019. [45] [46]
In February 2019, OYO received $100 million funding from the Chinese vehicle-for-hire company, Didi Chuxing. [47] In July 2019, Ritesh Agarwal, through RA Hospitality Holdings in Cayman Islands, [48] [49] signed a $2 billion deal to buy back shares from existing investors, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia India, to increase his stake in the company to 30%. [50] The company was valued at $10 billion with this deal. [51] [52] In October 2019, OYO raised Series F funding of $1.5 billion led by SoftBank Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia India. [53]
In July 2021, OYO closed a debt financing round of $660 million from global institutional investors to service existing loans. [54] In July 2021, Microsoft expressed interest to invest in OYO before its IPO [55] and a multi-year strategic deal was signed in September 2021. [56] In October 2021, Oyo filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to raise US$1.2 billion through an initial public offering. [57]
In January 2022, more than 500 current and former employees of OYO, purchased around 3 crore shares in the company. The total value of these shares can be approximated to about ₹330 crore (US$39 million), as per the last valuation of OYO of $9.6 billion. [58]
In June 2024, Oyo held another round of funding, raising between $100 and $125 million. The company was valued at $2.5 billion, down over 70% from the previous valuation in 2019. [59]
Year | Revenue (In crores) | Profits/Loss (In crores) | Source |
---|---|---|---|
FY 2019 | ![]() | ![]() | [60] |
FY 2020 | ![]() | ![]() | |
FY 2021 | ![]() | ![]() | |
FY 2022 | ![]() | ![]() | [61] |
FY 2023 | ![]() | ![]() | [62] |
FY 2024 | ![]() | ![]() | [63] |
Oyo Rooms operates the following brands for its properties and services:
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