Oyo Rooms, a startup which runs a unique affordable hotel model, has today announced that it has secured a $25 Million (INR 150 Crore) funding round from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia and Greenoaks Capital. The start-up partners with branded hotels across the country and provides those rooms at dirt-cheap prices to its consumers.
Started in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal, Oyo Rooms partners with numerous branded hotels across India to provide travellers with an affordable, yet luxurious option for staying, which includes facilities like Air-conditioned rooms, Wi-Fi and complimentary breakfast.
Talking on his company’s freshly raised capital, Ritesh says,
In a quest to make affordable stays ‘real’, I started OYO Rooms. Our vision is to offer the ‘OYO Rooms experience’ to every business, leisure and pilgrim traveler across 100 cities through a network of 10,000 hotels. We welcome Greenoaks as a partner and are very excited to work with them. Our current investors- Lightspeed, Sequoia and DSG have been great partners in helping us build and scale the company.
Oyo has infact gained significant traction among India’s youth, who earlier had to compromise on comfort due to India’s rather costly hotel industry. While many hotel booking and comparison service run in India, they act more like an aggregator, offering the lowest possible price, rather than providing an affordable one.
While Oyo has competitors like any other startup, I still think that the company has an edge over others due to its hotel-partnership model. As a result, Oyo’s expansion rate has been phenomenal, rising up from just 1 hotel in 2013 to over 200 hotels in 10 cities till this point of time. It now operates in 10 major business and travel destinations including Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Goa, Pune & Manesar.
With its freshly infused capital, the company is aiming to expand to as many as 10,000 hotels across 100 cities in India.
OYO was also part of VentureNursery accelerator program’s first batch and had also received a $100,000 grant as part of 2013 Thiel Fellowship program in October 2013.
Funding amount revised after an updated info through Oyo’s press team
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