OYO, the leading hotel aggregator, has taken a huge step towards expansion, after opening hotels in China and Indonesia making it one of the few Indian consumer technology companies expanding businesses in the world’s second largest economy.
The developments come only eight months after the Gurugram-headquartered company raised $10 million funds from China Lodging Group, one of the largest multi-brand hotel groups in the world. Seemingly, the deal provided much more than capital value as it provided a strategic partnership to OYO for its international expansion plans.
Commenting on the investment, Founder and CEO of OYO, Ritesh Agarwal said,
Addressing consumers in India and Chine – two of the world’s fastest-growing markets – through our combined strengths opens up a very large and significant growth opportunity.
OYO stepped in the Chinese market by opening eight hotels in Shenzhen amounting to over 400 rooms and around 60-70 employees. The expansion plans will accelerate significantly, as the Indian company is determined to open a substantial amount of hotels in the next few months.
Additionally, the hotel aggregator has also begun operations in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia that is now regarded as a profitable international market for Indian startups, especially the consumer focused companies, since the country boast a large number of middle class individuals. The Indonesian expansion provides three hotels offering over 130 rooms.
However, this is not the first time that the Softbank-backed company is moving international. In 2016, the firm began operating in Malaysia and added Nepal to its portfolio last year only. Additionally, OYO is eyeing opening hotels in Dubai next month.
However, while the Gurugram-based company is aggressively expanding on several fronts of the world, it is not relaxing in the Indian market either. Indeed, while OYO is presently owning around 70,000 rooms spread across 230 cities in its homegrown country, it is targeting having over 180,000 rooms under its belt in India by the end of the year.