Oyo, an Indian budget hotel chain, is planning to file for an initial public offer as soon as next week. According to people familiar with the matter, Oyo joins a few other firms in India's second largest market who are exploring the public markets.
Ritesh Agarwal, 27, founded the seven-year-old startup. Sources say that the IPO will raise as much $1.2 billion.
According to people, the terms may change slightly in the coming days. Startups could also take a few additional days to file paperwork.
Oyo, like Zomato and a few other firms such as PolicyBazaar and Paytm, plans to list on Indian stock markets, according to one person.
SoftBank, Lightspeed Partners, and Airbnb are among the investors in the firm. It was valued at $9.6billion at its most recent valuation. The bank had approximately $780m to $800m in it as of three-months ago (per Agarwals public comments at a recent conference). In July, it also raised $660m in debt.
Oyo has operations in more than 30 countries, having recently received $5 million from Microsoft in a strategic investment. Oyo, a South Asian startup that is highly valued, has created an operating system to allow hoteliers to accept digital bookings and pay. Oyo's technology stack helps hoteliers decide the best price for a hotel room. It also helps them to integrate with third-party booking services like booking.com or MakeMyTrip.
Oyo, like many others in the hospitality and travel industry, was badly affected by the pandemic but has been able to recover significantly in recent months.
Today, most startups' revenue comes from a few markets like India, Malaysia and Indonesia. These countries have loosening their restrictions as more people are vaccinated.
Agarwal stated that the startup is already operating as a public company in a July interview with Bloomberg TV, but declined to say if it would list soon. Agarwal did not comment on the possibility of an IPO.
