OYO Commits $50 Mn To Expand Footprint Across Philippines

As the Gurugram-based hospitality unicorn, OYO plans to expand its presence in the international market, it has recently announced a commitment of $50 Mn (INR 355.7 Cr) to further develop its business in the Philippines.

The company forayed in its eighth international market with more than 21 franchised and leased hotels and is currently present across Metro Manila, Tagaytay and Cebu.

Along with the investment, the company is also aimed at expanding its presence across 10 cities by 2020. It is also aiming to generate over 1K direct and indirect employment opportunities.

“With the current 21 hotels, 500 rooms we aim to grow to 20K rooms in 10 cities by 2020 while becoming a household name for both local and international travelers visiting the country. Our growth in the country will be fueled by strong local leadership and a team of young hospitality enthusiasts,” said Abhinav Sinha, chief operating officer (COO) of OYO Hotels and Homes.

OYO: Strengthing Its Position On International Front

OYO, which was founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, also recently announced its plans to establish its footprint in 100 cities across Indonesia by the end of 2019. These initiatives show the company’s aggressiveness to capture the Southeast Asian hospitality market.

The hospitality giant which is backed by some of the popular investors including  SoftBank Group, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, and Hero Enterprise, has already established a strong presence across China, Nepal, UK, UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia and Dubai. Currently, it has over 13K hotels and 3,000 homes listed on its platform.

According to the company, with its foray into the Philippines, many job opportunities across sector such as housekeeping, front office, F&B, general management, civil engineering, data science, hospitality operations and technology will be generated.

This announcement comes in after recent reports said that the company had been listing hotels in the country with a major focus in Manila. Sinha added that with OYO’s technology expertise is empowering the hotel owners across the Southeast Asian market to improve the customer experience while maintaining efficiencies, high occupancy, and yields.

In order to drive its growth in the international markets, the company also recently appointed Sam Shih as its chief operating officer (COO) in China, Tan Ming Luk as its country head in Malaysia and Andrew Verbitsky as the head for Europe operations.

Other Segments Explored By OYO

In a bid to grow its business, the hospitality company is also looking to foray into different sectors. In 2018, the company acquired service apartment operator Novascotia Boutique Homes, IoT (Internet of Things) technology company AblePlus and online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors,  Weddingz.

As the company is set to capture the international market to develop its business, speculations are also rife that it is looking to enter the coworking space in India. A recent ET report claimed that OYO is in advanced talks to acquire coworking space provider Innov8 for about $28.09 Mn (INR 200 Cr) cash deal. In response to Inc42’s queries. However, OYO termed this is pure speculation.

“This is baseless speculation. We are currently focused on our core business and looking at strengthening and deepening our presence in our home markets, India and China while expanding our footprints across the globe, all with the goal of delivering high-quality experiences,” OYO spokesperson said in a statement.