NEW DELHI: Online home rental services giant Airbnb has invested an undisclosed sum in hospitality chain OYO Hotels & Homes, the San Francisco-based company announced on Monday, highlighting its attempts to push deeper into the hotels listings business.While the terms of the investment were not disclosed, sources briefed on the developments told ET, Airbnb had invested $150-$200 million into the SoftBank-backed OYO, with the latest investment also believed to be part of the company’s mammoth $1 billion funding round.However, with Airbnb’s investment, OYO will have now raised $1.1-$1.2 billion, overshooting its initial target. Both parties confirmed the transaction.“Airbnb’s strong global footprints and access to local communities will open up new opportunities for OYO Hotels & Homes,” Maninder Gulati, global chief strategy officer at OYO Hotels & Home, was quoted as stating, according to Reuters.“Emerging markets like India and China are some of Airbnb’s fastest-growing,” Greg Greeley, Airbnb’s president of homes, said in a statement.Apart from Airbnb, the equity financing round also includes the likes of ride hailing giants, Grab and Didi Chuxing joining OYO’s investor cap table, having put in $100 million each into the company, developments that were first reported by ET in December last year, and again inThe round saw SoftBank , the world’s largest technology investor, leading an $800 million capital infusion into the six-year-old company, with OYO’s other existing investors, Lightspeed Ventures Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks Capital, also participating.The latest funding round also comes a little over three months after OYO Group Chief Executive Ritesh Agarwal, in an internal email to employees, said that the company was well-capitalised, and did not have any plans of raising further capital. While Didi’s investment was be the final tranche of the $1 billion funding round, It is now unclear if the company has in fact closed the round, or is expected to continue onboarding new investors.Airbnb’s investment in OYO, which was first reported by The Information earlier in March, follows its announcement to acquire HotelsTonight, also for an undisclosed sum in the same month.OYO, which operates six brands under its portfolio - Oyo Rooms, Townhouse, SilverKey, Capital O, Palette Resorts and Collection O - has emerged as one of the largest providers of rooms and keys, across segments in India.According to data shared by the company, the company, which is currently present in over 259 cities across the country, with 8,700-plus buildings, manages over 173,000 rooms under its brand.Separately, in China, a second home market for OYO, it has said that its Chinese subsidiary, Oyo Jiudian, was present in 280 cities across China, operating more than 5,000 hotels and 2,60,000 rooms, as of January this year. It runs a mix of franchised and leased properties in the country.The investment in OYO comes at an opportune time for Airbnb, which has been present in India, but has struggled to make an impact in Asia’s third-largest economy, where it has about 45,000 listings on its platform.According to report by Bloomberg, the company, which was last valued at $31 billion, making it one of the most richly valued private companies in the world, has been focusing on evolving into an end-to-end travel platform.The company, which is also slated to to go public in a much-anticipated IPO, has more than doubled the number of rooms available in properties categorized as boutique hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and other hospitality venues like hostels and resorts, according to Bloomberg, citing Airbnb, with more than 6 million listings.

Source: Economic Times April 01, 2019 10:30 UTC