OYO’s Win Over Zostel, BharatPe CTO Exit & More

End Of The OYO-Zostel Conflict?

As OYO eyes a third shot at going public, it has cleared a major hurdle that has shadowed its IPO ambitions for years. In a significant legal win, the Delhi High Court has ruled in favour of the Ritesh Agarwal-led company in its long-standing dispute with rival Zostel — potentially bringing closure to a conflict that has dragged on for years.

The Root Cause: The issue traces back to 2015, when both companies entered into an agreement to merge their businesses. Even after a year of discussions, the merger failed to materialise. While this itself is not uncommon, the particulars of the deal put both companies at loggerheads. 

The Contradictions: Zostel claimed the initial term sheet was a binding agreement, and OYO disputed this. Zostel felt OYO was obligated to give shares in OYO since it had access to data from Zostel’s platform. After years of legal battles over claims of data theft, unpaid dues, and even Zostel’s attempts to restrain OYO’s IPO plans, the matter reached the Delhi HC.

What Next? The Delhi HC had already dismissed Zostel’s interim petition seeking a 7% stake in OYO in 2022, and finally ruled in favour of OYO this week. With this, the court also set aside the arbitral award to Zostel, stating that OYO did not breach any agreement.

This should put an end to the decade-long saga between the two companies, though it remains to be seen whether Zostel will choose to appeal the ruling. Till then, here’s a deeper look into where we stand in the decade-long conflict between the two hospitality majors.

From The Editor’s Desk

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JetSynthesys’ Live Events Playbook: While the live events business in India has been dominated by BookMyShow, the Krafton-backed company has put its hope in cracking the business with its new launch, JetAlive

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Capillary Acquires Kognitiv: The IPO-bound loyalty management platform has made the acquisition to boost its presence in global markets. Canada-based Kognitiv offers data-driven solutions for businesses to retain customers

Inc42 Startup Spotlight

How Entvin’s Is Fixing Pharma Company’s Regulatory Bottlenecks With AI

The pharmaceutical sector is a highly regulated industry to ensure drug safety, efficacy, and quality of medicines. Regulatory teams at big pharma companies often spend weeks ensuring that they remain compliant with evolving global standards. Recognising this gap, Sanskar Jain, Hemant Phalak and Rishabh Arya founded Entvin in 2022. 

Regulatory AI Agents: The Bengaluru-based startup is building AI agents to assist regulatory teams in the life sciences sector. While maintaining strict data security, these agents help pharma companies to automate time-consuming tasks, streamline workflows and improve overall efficiency. 

The Opportunity: The startup is eyeing to tap into India’s pharmaceutical industry which is set to become a $130 Bn opportunity by 2030. It includes Zdyus, Biocon, and Dr. Reddy’s among its top clients. The startup claims to play a huge role in verifying the accuracy of drug communication and building a library of approved claims, to parsing FDA guidelines for the right information. 

With other homegrown players like Credgenics, Rezolv and DPDZero at its tail, can Entvin AI make its name in the enterprise tech space?