Oyo to invest ₹1400 crore in India, South Asia in 2019

New Delhi: Hospitality startup Oyo announced on Tuesday that it would invest $200 million (about ₹1,400 crore) in its India and South Asia business in 2019. “The money will go towards capital expenditure, technology and leadership," said Aditya Ghosh, CEO of India and South Asia for Oyo.

While Oyo is focusing on South Asia, the company also said it wanted to widen its presence in India. According to the company, it is present in over 259 cities in the country, with over 8,700 buildings and over 173,000 rooms. Oyo operates in 10 countries worldwide, including Japan, Nepal and India.

Further,the company said its losses declined to 20.3% in 2017-18 and it estimated its losses would go down to 10.4% in 2018-19.

"With a strong balance sheet, today we can go to more places than ever, introduce new categories and invest in our assets while maintaining our quality standards, without raising any further capital," said Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and Group CEO.

Oyo recently raised $100 million from Chinese Didi Chuxing, completing the $1 billion fund raise it had promised last year. The company is currently the second most valuable startup in India, after payments service provider PayTM. It is valued at about $5 billion.

At the press conference in New Delhi, the company also announced a new category called Collection O, which will be added to Oyo’s existing portfolio of budget and mid-segment hotels. In addition, the company has added a new SOS button on its application, as part of its initiatives to improve customer safety.

The SOS button will allow customers to contact Oyo’s safety response team and local law enforcement at any time of the day.  

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.