Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal invests Rs 830 cr in firm's latest funding round

Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of the multinational hospitality chain Oyo, has invested Rs 830 crore in the company through his wholly owned entity, Patient Capital. This investment brings the total funding for the latest round to Rs 1,457 crore and underscores Agarwal’s confidence in the company’s prospects.

This marked the IPO bound firm’s G series funding where it raised Rs 1,040 crore in the round, which was followed by an earlier round of raising Rs 416.85 crore. Oravel Stays Ltd is the parent company of Oyo.

Following the recent investment, Agarwal's stake in Oyo will rise from 29.97 per cent to 32.57 per cent.

“Ritesh made this investment to prevent further dilution of his ownership in Oyo and to demonstrate confidence in the company's future. The investment is supported by family offices based in Singapore,” a source informed the news agency PTI.

This additional equity issuance was authorised at the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on August 8, where 99.99 per cent of shareholders were in agreement. The new fundraising round values the company at a whopping $2.4 billion.

The investment will be made through Compulsory Convertible Cumulative Preference Shares, each priced at Rs 29 (total 358,698,276 shares) aligning with the valuation of the recent raise in Series G.

With the capital, Oyo plans to expand its global footprint.

Besides Agarwal, key contributors in the funding round include InCred Wealth, J&A Partners, the family office of Mankind Pharma promoters and ASK Financial Holdings. J&A Partners is investing Rs 120 crore, and ASK Rs 14 crore. 

Founded in 2013, Oyo has expanded to over 157,000 storefronts across 35 countries. The first ever Oyo was opened in Gurugram’s popular locality South City 1. By 2015, the company had expanded to 100 cities in India with more than 10,000 rooms.

Outside India, Oyo’s first target was Malaysia and currently has a presence in Europe, the US and West Asia.

[With inputs from PTI]