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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Even as the chorus of the company’s turnaround seems to be gathering momentum, it appears that co-founder Ritesh Agarwal’s one-trick pony continues to be financial engineering.
It has been a season of lots of good news for OYO. Earlier this week, Business Standard reported that the budget hotel operator is looking to raise $200 million at a valuation of $4.5 billion or upwards. A couple of weeks back, OYO said it is acquiring G6 Hospitality, the company that owns the Motel 6 and Studio 6 chain of budget hotels in the US. In an all-cash deal, OYO is buying the hotel franchisee business from private equity firm Blackstone’s real estate arm for $525 million.
Just a few weeks before this, OYO announced that it has raised …
A debt-heavy global pivot to modest motels and accounting-led profits define the company now heading to Indian public markets.
For one of the world’s largest and shrewdest investors to entirely skip putting money in the country is a sign of how quickly the nature of the Indian startup ecosystem has changed.
The challenges of running a budget hotel chain in India forced the decade-old company to quietly shift its focus to a travel management platform for corporate travellers. Now it must face challenges of another kind.
