INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Europe account for more than 90% of the hotels listed on Oyo's platform.Hotel-booking startup Oyo Hotels -
Homes filed a draft prospectus on Thursday for Rs 8,430 crore ($1.1 billion) initial public offering, joining the rush of technology
unicorns seeking a listing on Indian stock exchanges after a world-beating stock rally.The SoftBank Group Corp
and Airbnb Inc.-backed firm plans to raise Rs 7,000 crore through the sale of new shares, according to the filing
The rest will be secondary shares or those sold by existing stockholders
The startup was last valued at about $9 billion, according to CB Insights, making it India's third most valuable startup.Founder Ritesh
Agarwal, his holding company RA Hospital Holdings and SoftBank Vision Fund -- the three largest shareholders -- are the promoters, according
SoftBank held 46 per cent while Agarwal and his holding company had a combined 33 per cent stake in the firm, according to the last filing
with ministry of company affairs.The filing of the draft red herring prospectus of Oyo, which is officially known as Oravel Stays, marks a
dramatic recovery after the pandemic buffeted the travel and hospitality industry
The startup has refashioned itself, moving away from a business model that brought financial stress, soured its relationship with hotel
owners and brought on court battles.Oyo has stopped offering minimum guarantees to its 157,000 partners -- hotels, homes and resorts on its
marketplace that it dubs storefronts -- and no longer invests in upgrading the standards of the hotels
Instead, the company forges revenue-sharing pacts with partners and gets full and exclusive control over the hotel owner's inventory.Oyo is
the latest Indian unicorn to file its intent to go public after food delivery startup Zomato Ltd
became the first to list in July
Digital payments startup Paytm and Nykaa, an online retailer of beauty products, are among others that have filed initial documents
Edtech Byju's, the country's most valuable startup, is also considering an IPO in the early half of 2022, Bloomberg News has
reported.Agarwal established Oyo in 2013 after dropping out of college
Now 27, he will be worth billions of dollars if Oyo has a successful listing
The high-profile entrepreneur was part of a rarefied group of SoftBank-backed startup founders coached by Masayoshi Son himself
In 2019, Agarwal invested $2 billion, mostly borrowed, to triple his stake in the lodgings startup and take his ownership to nearly a
third.India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Europe account for more than 90% of the hotels listed on Gurgaon-based Oyo's platform
The budget lodgings marketplace also offers stays in China, the U.S
and dozens of other countries, though its global expansion was curtailed by the pandemic.The app has been downloaded 100 million times,
according to the filing, making it one of the most-popular travel apps in the world alongside Airbnb and Booking.com
It has more than 9 million users in its loyalty program, generating direct demand from customers.More than two-thirds of its workforce,
including its technology team, are based in India, according to the IPO filing
In its home market, over 92 per cent of hotels are un-branded, standalone properties that fall under the "unorganized" hotel category,
