India’s largest operating hotel chain OYO Rooms, is now expanding its business in the hospitality industry in China. The company which is owned and operated by Oravel Stays Pvt., Ltd., subsists more than 11,000 rooms across 26 Chinese cities including Hangzhou, Xian, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Kunming. Lately, OYO has been busy investigating new growth opportunities and boom! The expansion of the hotel budget aggregator in one of the fastest developing countries China is one big achievement for the homegrown startup.
The young lad who is the founder and CEO of OYO, Ritesh Agarwal said, after our successful overseas expansion and operations in Malaysia and Nepal, we are thrilled to offer OYO hotels’ hassle free and standardized stay experience to guests in China.
The company has been growing exponentially and it claims around 100,000 rooms in India. Ritesh added, the expansion is in line with our mission of creating beautiful living spaces by empowering hotel owners to become better hospitality players while ensuring an end to end controlled experience for our guests. Apart from the newest China, OYO’s foreign market presence includes Dubai, Malaysia and Nepal.
Another fascinating news for OYO is that the well known investor SoftBank Group is keen on doubling its investment in the budget hotel aggregator. SoftBank has been part of four funding rounds worth $ 512 million in OYO, since August 2015. Recently, the Chairman and Chief Executive, Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, called OYO Hotels a ‘next generation hotel company using the internet service’. Mr. Son also revealed his plans to support OYO Hotels in its foray into China through a joint venture.
OYO was founded in the year 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal who was a teenager then. He also happens to be a Thiel Fellow who got the idea for the business after a not so satisfying experience of staying in budget hotels in India. The hotel budget aggregator provides various convenient services to the customers that include bringing the long tail of small hotels online to generate bookings by ensuring minimum standards for travellers such as hot water, clean towels, linen and internet services.
The company would soon enter the unicorn club when it would raise fundings in the next round of capital. A unicorn startup is valued at $ 1 billion or more! At present, OYO is valued at around $ 260 million.
With its latest diversification, OYO is definitely aiming high!
