Oyo makes third acquisition of the year, acquires wedding banquet management company Weddingz
Oyo acquires Weddingz, an online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors; aims to fuel its vision of 1,80,000 keys by the end of this year through acquisitions.
Oyo on Monday announced that it had acquired Weddingz, the wedding banquet management company. While the details and cost of the acquisition remained undisclosed, the Weddingz team will be joining the Oyo team.
This is Oyo’s third acquisition this year. In March, it had acquired Chennai-based service apartment Novascotia Boutique Homes. In July, it acquired AblePlus, the Mumbai-based Internet of Things (IoT) startup.
The Delhi-NCR based aggregator platform had announced that acquisition would fuel its growth in 2018. Acquisitions are aimed at fuelling its vision of achieving 1,80,000 keys by the end of this year, while achieving 4.5 percent of the hotel market share.
This is the hotel aggregator’s first acquisition in the wedding segment. Mahinder Gulati, Chief Strategy Officer, Oyo, said in a press statement: “What this partnership facilitates is combining Oyo’s capabilities of asset management and technology with the scale Weddingz.in offers in India’s fragmented $40 billion weddings industry. The company has a healthy scale of managing over 1,500-plus wedding events per quarter, with an inventory size of over 40 banquets spread across Mumbai and Delhi.”
He said:
“At Oyo, our experience ranges from end-to-end management of homes, villas, small assets and hotels with over 100 rooms while running successful businesses for our asset partners. All these facets will be of utmost importance while operating in the wedding industry that is in dire need of fundamental changes and improvements.’’
The Oyo team intends to expand its playing field to the real-estate sector and Weddingz is a step towards that. The team believes that weddings banquets, being a fragmented, low-yield, broken customer service business, is a great opportunity for Oyo to use these capabilities and create a dominant brand in this industry.
Globally, the wedding industry has grown to become a $500 billion market. The Oyo team believes that with over 10 million marriages held annually in India, the segment holds immense potential for innovation and standardisation.
OYO aims to introduce efficiency and streamline the process by offering a one-stop platform for all its needs, including providing venues, decorations, catering, and a dedicated wedding planner so families can enjoy this crucial milestone in a hassle-free manner.
Sandeep Lodha, Founder, Weddingz.in, said Weddingz.in was started with a similar mission of adding value to the wedding planning experience of people while introducing a structure to the industry. He added that they had successfully achieved that in the past three years.
“In the coming months, we'll expand the offering to other cities in India and later to global markets. This alliance will work towards simplifying wedding planning for Indians while tapping the enormous opportunities this space offers,” Sandeep said.