India’s Oyo Hotel Startup to Target $9 Billion Valuation in IPO
Photo Credit: Oyo CEO Ritesh Agarwal plans to take the company public in India in the next week or two. He's pictured here in Skift's NYC office a few years ago. Skift / Jose Marmolejos
Skift Take
Among Softbank's holdings, Oyo does not appear to be another WeWork calamity. However, under the glare of being a public company, Oyo would be challenged to get to profitability, and to remedy its ongoing brand reputation challenges.
India's once-highflying hotel operator and tech provider Oyo is poised to execute an initial public offering in India in the next week or two at a valuation in the $9 billion range.
That valuation, although diminished from the $10 billion to $12 billion range it signaled when filing its IPO paperwork in India five months ago, isn't a shock because Microsoft invested a tiny $5 million in Oyo in September at a $9.6 billion valuation.
You can say this about Oyo — it seems to have survived the pandemic so far, although its footprint and model have vast
