Grab invests $100m in India's Oyo
Southeast Asian ride-hailing player Grab has invested more than $100 million in India-based online hospitality platform Oyo.
The investment is part of Oyo’s $1 billion Series E round announced in October, according to regulatory filings cited by Bloomberg. An initial tranche of $800 million was led by SoftBank Vision Fund, with participation by Lightspeed India Partners and Greenoaks Capital. The final $100 million tranche is expected to close by the end of the year.
Founded in 2012, Oyo helps budget hotel owners market their rooms to travelers through its online platform. The company partners with more than 8,500 hotels in India across 230 cities, and is also implementing new business models. Oyo Townhouse offers a premium experience at properties leased and managed by Oyo, while Oyo Smart Coin is a cryptocurrency designed to increase in value as Oyo adds more hotels, allowing reduced prices for users.
The Series E round is intended to help Oyo expand overseas, particularly in China, where it launched earlier this year and already manages 87,000 rooms. Of the new capital, $600 million is earmarked for China, while the rest is intended for other markets such as the UK, Malaysia, Nepal, and Indonesia, which Oyo entered in October.
Grab’s investment in Oyo comes as the company seeks to expand its platform to meet a wide variety of needs, including cashless payments and travel and financial services, along with transportation. These efforts include a strategic partnership announced earlier this year with travel site operator Booking Holdings that will add accommodation booking services worldwide to the Grab app. Grab has pursued additional partnerships with global technology and automotive players including Microsoft, Toyota, and Hyundai.
SoftBank is a significant backer of both Grab and Oyo, having led or contributed to all of the latter’s funding rounds since the Series B round in 2015 and committing several investments to Grab since 2014.
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