Founder Ritesh Agarwal-Led Entity Leads Oyo's Rs 1,500-Crore Downround

Hospitality major Oyo has raised an additional Rs 1,040 crore, or roughly $125 million in its latest funding round, at a valuation of $2.4 billion—a cut of about 75% since its peak valuation of $9.6 billion.

Registered as Oravel Stays Ltd., Oyo has raised the amount from Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ritesh Agarwal's entity Patient Capital, J&A Partners and ASK.

Patient Capital has invested Rs 830 crore, J&A Partners Rs 120 crore, and ASK Rs 14 crore. J&A Partners is the family office of the Mankind Pharma family. InCred is also investing an additional Rs 76 crore, via veteran investor Ashish Kacholia.

The fundraise is part of the same Series G round which was opened by InCred Wealth and Investment Services Pvt. Incred had invested Rs 416.8 crore in July this year at the same valuation. This takes the Series G funding to Rs 1,457 crore, or about $175 million.

Oyo, in July, had said it will use the funds for expansion, acquisitions and general corporate purposes.

The valuation is a drop from its near-$10 billion worth when it raised strategic capital from tech giant Microsoft in 2021.

The Ritesh Agarwal-led firm has also withdrawn its papers for an IPO for a second time, citing unfavourable market conditions. The company had also been in talks with SEBI for expedited approval but did not receive the nod.

Last fiscal was also the company's first-ever fully profitable year, posting nearly Rs 100 crore in profit, according to Agarwal, who had said that the company's cash balance is also about Rs 1,000 crore.

Oyo's shareholders also approved the appointment of SoftBank's Sumer Juneja, as a non-executive director on parent entity Oravel’s board.

Juneja is the managing partner and head of EMEA and India at SoftBank Investment Advisors, a major investor in Oyo. He will join Oravel's board as a nominee of Softbank Vision Fund.