Oravel Stays Private Limited, the parent company of the travel technology platform OYO Hotels & Homes, has approved an increase in the company’s authorized share capital from Rs 1.17 crore to Rs 901 crore from its board of directors.
OYO’s board agreed to promote the authorized share capital from Rs 1,17,80,010 to Rs 9,01,13,59,300 in a general meeting hosted through video conferencing on September 1, 2021. According to the filings, Ritesh Aggarwal’s OYO had proposed to allot 80 Series F2 Compulsorily Convertible Cumulative Preference Shares (CCPS) of Rs 100 apiece, but with the increase in authorized share capital, OYO will be looking to grant 177 Series F2 CCPS of Rs 100 each, indicating that the startup will raise massive capitals from investors in the coming days.
OYO revealed in August that it has picked financial institutions including JP Morgan, Kotak Mahindra Capital, and Citi for its $1.5 billion initial public offerings (IPO) with a valuation of $14 billion to $16 billion. OYO’s decision to go public happened at a time when several other startups are preparing for the public markets. Unicorns such as beauty e-commerce platform Nykaa, insurtech and lending platform Policybazaar, logistics giant Delhivery, and digital payment platform Paytm are anticipated to debut on Indian exchanges in the second half of this year.
The hospitality startup also raised $5 million from Microsoft Corporation last month. The US tech giant received 5 equity shares and 80 preference shares from the company. OYO’s valuation increased to $9.6 billion as a result of the latest financial investment. Microsoft was rumored to be acquiring a stake in the Indian hotel company early this year.
The hospitality platform recently introduced OYO 360, a self-registration solution for hotel owners. The new service offers hotel owners to list their properties in less than 30 minutes, as opposed to the traditional 15 days. According to the hospitality unicorn, hotel owners may enroll their properties with OYO with a couple of clicks and start receiving financial benefits, incentives, and OYO network other benefits.
The company has switched from a minimum guarantee (MG) approach to a revenue-sharing model, as well as to an integrated and automated dues reconciliation with its hotel partners twice a week. OYO has successfully secured funding rounds from prominent foreign venture capital firms which including Softbank, Sequoia, Hero Corporate, and major world-leading consumer technology companies such as DiDi, Grab, and Airbnb.
In July, OYO raised $660 million in debt funding from major institutional investors, including Fidelity Investments, through the term B loan route.
