India-based budget hotel booking platform Oyo Rooms is in advanced talks with telecommunications company SoftBank to lead a $100m series B round, The Times of India reported yesterday.
SoftBank has reportedly drawn up a term sheet, and is looking to take a 25% to 30% stake in the company, though the terms of the agreement are not yet finalised. Investment firm Tiger Global Management had reportedly shown interest in investing in Oyo’s series B round but appears to have withdrawn.
Founded in 2012 as Oravel Stays, Oyo operates a booking platform for standardised hotel rooms priced from $16 a night that are listed once they meet certain requirements, including internet access and can provide high quality linen and food.
The service enables customers to book rooms at more than 350 hotels across 16 cities in India. Oyo plans to expand its offering to 1,000 hotels across 25 cities by the end of the year.
Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners supplied $25m of funding for Oyo’s series A round in February this year, after DSG Consumer Partners and Lightspeed had provided $650,000 in seed funding for the company in May 2014.
Oyo also secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from accelerator Venture Nursery, from which the startup had earlier graduated, and eight angel investors in 2012.