OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal Sets Up Aroa Ventures To Invest In Early Stage Startups

OYO’s founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal has set up an investment firm in Singapore called Aroa Ventures to invest in early-stage startups working across consumer, technology and leisure infrastructure sectors.

Agarwal is looking for startups that have proven unit economics, 20% year-on-year (YoY) growth rate, and $1 Mn-$10 Mn in annual revenue. The company is willing to invest $500K to $5 Mn in its portfolio companies, the Aroa Ventures’ official website noted. The development was first reported by Entrackr.

Though it is not yet clear if the company has made any investment so far. Inc42 has reached out to OYO seeking more details about the investment firm.

Beyond capital, the firm will also help its portfolio companies accelerate their growth and deliver better risk-adjusted returns. The latest investment firm will be headed by Innov8’s former COO and Purist cofounder Gaurav Gulati.

According to the Aora Ventures’ filings in Singapore accessed by Entrackr, the company was registered last year with Agarwal and Thomas Hufnagel as the two shareholders through RACo Holding Company. But, Agarwal got the complete control of the company after taking over 100% stake in RACo Holding.

“We believe that the long-term environment will always be favorable for making value-add investments in companies with proven unit economics and high potential to scale.  At Aroa, we focus on growth-stage businesses in the consumer, technology, and leisure infrastructure sectors. We are operationally-oriented and seek to partner with entrepreneurs of high repute, building long-lasting businesses,” the official website read.

Last October, OYO’s top executives, including founder Agarwal, had pooled their individual angel investments into a limited liability partnership firm Raaga Partners LLP to invest in early-stage startups. As per the reports, the funding would not have any connection to OYO, but will only be limited to the individual executives. Agarwal neither confirmed or denied the development.

Besides OYO, even Snapdeal cofounders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have taken a similar route to invest in seed and early-stage startups in their personal capacity. The duo set up an investment vehicle Titan Capital last year, which claims to have invested in 70 startups and has a ticket size of $100K-$500K.

Titan Capital’s portfolio includes female hygiene brand Sanfe, professional network platform for women Leap.Club, online recruitment platform JobSquare, homegrown bicycle brand Frog’s parent company AlphaVector, female wellness startup Azah, and online gaming startup Rein Games, among others.

Freecharge cofounders Sandeep Tandon and Kunal Shah have also set up Whiteboard Capital to manage their investments, following the exit from their company. It’s portfolio includes  O2O fashion discovery platform Fashalot, online lending startup Ziploan, hardware deeptech startup Atomberg Technologies, celebrity engagement platform Wysh and microcontent platform GIFSKEY, among others.

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