Hospitality Unicorn OYO Files For INR 8,430 Cr IPO

Gurugram-based hospitality unicorn Oravel Stays which operates OYO will be raising INR 8430 Cr ($1.2 Bn) through an initial public offering. 

According to documents seen by Inc42, the IPO offer will consist of a primary component which will include an issue of fresh shares worth INR 7,000 Cr and an offer-for-sale, meaning allowing existing investors to offload their shares, amounting to INR 1,430 Cr. 

The startup and its stakeholders may, in consultation with lead managers, consider a further issue of equity shares “Pre-IPO placement” for cash consideration aggregating up to $193 Mn.

The Pre-IPO placement, if undertaken, will be at a price to be decided by the company and its stakeholders in consultation with the Lead Managers and the Pre-IPO placement will be undertaken prior to the filing of the Red Herring Prospectus with the ROC.

Founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal, OYO last raised $5 Mn from US tech giant Microsoft at a valuation of $9 Bn. Earlier in July, the startup closed $660 Mn in term loan funding from global institutional investors. 

The hospitality unicorn is backed by marquee investors such as Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank, NASDAQ-listed Airbnb, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Innoven Capital, among others. The startup to date has raised $4.1 Bn from 26 investors across 19 rounds. 

In the Indian travel and tourism space, OYO will become the fourth Indian startup heading for an IPO.  In August, online ticket booking platform ixigo’s parent Le Travenue filed its DRHP and is heading for an INR 1,600 Cr IPO. 

In the same month, travel and hospitality SaaS startup Rategain also filed papers with the market regulator for a fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to INR 400 Cr and an offer for sale of up to 2,26,05,530 equity shares.

At the beginning of the year, another online travel portal EaseMyTrip went for INR 510 Cr IPO. EaseMyTrip recently entered the unicorn club as it crossed $1 Bn market cap after its shares touched a 52-week high of INR 717.65.

Post Zomato’s blockbuster listing, dozens of Indian startups have queued up to test their fate in the public markets. Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm, Gurugram-based Mobikwik, fashion ecommerce unicorn Nykaa have already filed their DRHP with SEBI. 

Edtech decacoron BYJU’s, cab aggregator Ola, food delivery startup Swiggy and healthtech startup PharmEasy are among some major names that are likely to file their DRHPs next.