Inside Oyo Hotels founder Ritesh Agarwal's $1.5 bn share buyback plan

Agarwal is pledging his shares to finance the buyback, which will see his shareholding rise to about 30% from 10% currently

Shares buybacks are not uncommon. They are usually done to provide liquidity to employees holding ESOPs or for a company’s promoters to rack up their shareholding when the firm has excess cash or the stock price is low (in case of a listed entity).

In the start-up world, it is unprecedented for a founder to buy back shares from investors and this is what makes the case of Oyo Hotels & Homes so interesting.

The company’s founder, Ritesh Agarwal, has proposed to buy back shares worth $1.5 billion from early investors Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed and also infuse another $500 million in