Microsoft Invests $5M in Oyo

After rumors flourished in late July about Microsoft investing in Oyo Rooms prior to the budget hotel start-up’s anticipated IPO, the technology company last week plunked down $5 million for a piece of the India-based company. The new investment values Oyo at $9.6 billion, which is near the $10 billion valuation from 2019 and significantly higher than the $3 billion valuation from recent quarters, according to TechCrunch, which added that the investment could mean Oyo shifting to use Microsoft’s cloud services.

Last month, Oyo raised $660 million in term loan B funding. The company planned to use the funds to retire its past debts, strengthen its balance sheet and invest in product technology.

Oyo had been growing at a fast clip prior to the pandemic, expanding into new markets, including the United States in 2019. BTN named its founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal to its 25 Most Influential People in Business Travel later that year. But early in 2020, the company made significant staff cuts, particularly in India and China, then in the U.S. Agarwal in February 2020 shared with BTN Oyo’s global strategy and insights into its business travel bookings, but that was prior to Covid-19 becoming a global pandemic, which ravaged the company’s business, as it did the hotel industry as a whole.

Donna M. Airoldi www.businesstravelnews.com