The valuation of Oyo, once India’s second-most valuable startup at $10 billion, has dipped to $2.4 billion in a new funding round, multiple sources told TechCrunch.
The Gurugram-headquartered startup has raised $173.5 million in a Series G funding round. InCred Wealth, Patient Capital and J&A Partners invested in the new round.
Oyo’s current valuation has fallen below its total capital raised, which Tracxn, a data insight platform, reports as approximately $3.3 billion in combined equity and debt financing.
TechCrunch reported in May that Oyo was seeking to raise a funding round that could lower its valuation to $3 billion or lower. “We deny any rumors, including that of the valuation in the article,” a spokesperson for the budget hotel chain told TechCrunch in May. “There is no concrete transaction, let alone a valuation discussion at this stage.”
The cut in valuation is hardly a surprise. SoftBank, which owns more than 40% of Oyo, internally cut the valuation of the Indian startup to $2.7 billion in 2022. Oyo said at the time that there was “no rational basis” for the markdown of its valuation.
Oyo counts SoftBank, Airbnb, Peak XV Partners, Microsoft and Lightspeed Venture Partners among its backers.
The new funding follows Oyo withdrawing its draft red herring prospectus for an initial public offering for the second time earlier this year. The Indian startup originally filed the paperwork to go public in 2021, seeking to raise about $1.2 billion at a valuation of $12 billion at the time.
India’s market regulator, SEBI, has not approved the startup’s application for an IPO.
