OYO raises Rs 54 crore from Hindustan Media Ventures

Hospitality major OYO Hotels & Homes has raised Rs 54 crore from Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd. According to a filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), OYO has raised the capital as part of its series F1 funding round.

With this investment, Hindustan Media Ventures subscribed to 125 Series F1 Compulsory Convertible Cumulative Preference Shares (Series F1 CCCPS) of OYO, with a face value of Rs 100 each for cash, at an issue price of Rs 43.20 lakh per Series F1 CCCPS for an aggregate consideration equivalent to Rs 54 crore on a private placement basis.

OYO, however, declined to comment on the development.

OYO Hotels & Homes, currently operates an asset-light chain of hotels and vacation homes and offers over 43,000 hotels and 1.50 lakh homes around the world. OYO currently operates in over 800 cities in 80 countries, including the US, Europe, the UK, India, Middle East, southeast Asia, and Japan.

The company is backed by leading investors, including the SoftBank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Ventures, Airbnb, and Hero Enterprise, among others.

Hindustan Media Ventures is promoted by HT Media Ltd (which runs Hindustan Times and Mint newspapers), which holds 74.4% stake in the company.

The funding announcement comes at a time when OYO is seeing some recovery from the impact of the pandemic.

Last month, it reportedly laid off around 300 employees from its operations team as it is transitioning its business model from a minimum business guarantee model to revenue-sharing. This shift in business model reportedly also includes automating a lot of processes in the company.

“We have done no significant restructuring at this point in time. There are some localized actions, basis change in business models and our move towards product and technology to serve our partners and customers, keeping in mind the current business realities," an OYO spokesperson told the media at the time.

OYO said in September last year, however, that it had liquidity of about $1 billion in cash and cash equivalent giving it enough room to navigate the business through tough times amid the pandemic.