Hospitality start-up Oyo has raised around $50 million from financial services group InCred Wealth and Investment at a valuation of around $2.38 billion, as reported by Entrackr.
The company will reportedly use the funding for global investment, enhancing the business plan and acquisitions.
Hospitality start-up Oyo has raised around $50 million from financial services group InCred Wealth and Investment at a valuation of around $2.38 billion, as reported by Entrackr.
The valuation is around 76 per cent lower than the company’s peak valuation of $10 billion. In May of this year, there were reports that the hospitality start-up was looking for funding at a 70 per cent valuation cut.
The start-up is gathering $100 million from family offices and wealthy individuals as part of a larger investment round before refiling its draft prospectus for an IPO, according to the report.
The company will reportedly use the funding for global investment, enhancing the business plan and acquisitions. Oyo is receiving this funding after a gap of almost three years.
In August 2021, Microsoft invested $5 million in the SoftBank-backed start-up. As per Tech Crunch, at the time of the investment, Oyo’s valuation was $9.6 billion, slightly below its peak valuation of $10 billion. The investment came just as the start-up was recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Ritesh Agarwal, the company CEO, said that the pandemic hit the company like a cyclone. He added, “We built something for so many years, and it took just 30 days for it to drop by over 60 per cent.”
Recently, Agarwal reportedly announced that the company made its first-ever annual net profit of Rs 100 crore in FY24. Meanwhile, the company also withdrew its draft IPO application for the second time in a row. Oyo might refile its IPO papers after it raises more capital.
While mentioning that the firm was looking for a fundraise, the Economic Times reported that Agarwal was in talks with high-net-worth investors. The company had between $200 and $250 million in bank cash in February after drastically lowering its operating costs, according to the report.