An investment vehicle backed by Indian budget hotel chain OYO founder, Ritesh Agarwal, is set to invest another $65.1 million into the startup, at a valuation of $3.8 billion, according to media reports.
The investment, through Redsprig Innovation Partners, will increase Agarwal’s shareholding in the entity to 32%, from 30% previously.
The development comes about two months after OYO raised $173.5 million in Series G funding that lowered its valuation to $2.5 billion. The SoftBank-backed company was once valued at $10 billion. It had last raised $5 million from US-based tech giant Microsoft in August 2021.
OYO, which faced internal turmoil and layoffs in the past months, withdrew its draft papers (DRHP) for an initial public offering (IPO) from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the second time in May.
The company had initially filed to go public in October 2021 for about $1 billion but delayed the share sale due to bleak market conditions. On March 31, 2023, it submitted a confidential “pre-filing” document for a reportedly trimmed-down IPO.
