OYO secures $103.4 M from Indonesian ride-hailing giant Grab as a part of its $1 B round

Gurgaon-based hotel brand OYO has raised $100 million from Indonesian ride-hailing giant Grab, according to the company's Registrar of Companies (RoC) filings. In September, OYO had attained unicorn status with a total commitment of $1 billion. It had then raised $800 million in a round of funding led by SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA) through SoftBank Vision Fund, with participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia and Greenoaks Capital.

The new unicorn had also confirmed it would receive an additional commitment of $200 million. This $103.4 million from Grab is a part of that commitment. The company will direct a significant part of the funds from this round of financing, approximately $600 million, into strengthening its position in China, which is still in the early stages of growth, while the rest will go into maintaining its leadership position in India and expansion into new markets.

Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, OYO had said that in a short span of time the company has already started expanding its presence to newer segments like Townhouse and Oyo Home and the recently started Palette Resorts. He said that the team will continue to explore newer businesses while remaining focussed on organic and inorganic growth.

OYO India claims to have over 125,000 rooms and is witnessing three times growth in transactions year-on-year with net take rates over 20 percent. The unicorn claims to be achieving unit-level profitability and benefiting from 90-percent demand coming from direct channels, improving operating efficiencies while customer loyalty, with over 67 percent of the top line in India coming from repeat customers. In just over ten months since its foray into the market, OYO China has presence in 171 cities with over 87,000 rooms.  

Southeast Asia is also one of the top markets for OYO, where the team is looking to aggressively grow and expand. Reports suggest that Grab has stated that it intends to enter into different sectors to take on Indonesia's Go-Jek.