India’s home services market has seen quite a bit of churn over the years — several companies have tried their hands at cracking the space, but it hasn’t always been easy. Several startups shut down along the way, and others ended up being acquired by bigger players. One company that’s been going strong since being founded in 2014 is UrbanClap. It’s raised $110 million (Rs. 770 crore) so far, and at a reported valuation of…

There have been all sorts of reactions to Ritesh Agarwal’s $2 billion buyback of Oyo’s shares — while he’s been feted by India’s startup community, the deal has raised eyebrows in India’s stock market circles. But what both sides agree on is that the Oyo investors who’ve sold him the shares have made a killing. Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital have made the richest ever-cash outs in India’s startup ecosystem with their sale of Oyo…

Ritesh Agarwal is currently the toast of India’s startup ecosystem. After having bought back shares worth $2 billion into his startup Oyo Rooms, he now owns 30% of the company he’d founded, which means he gets a potentially bigger payday when Oyo does go public. Also, the deal has raised Oyo’s valuation to an eye-popping $10 billion, which puts it in joint first place with Paytm in the list of India’s most valuable startups. But…

For a company that wasn’t even worth $1 billion until 10 months ago, the journey to becoming India’s most valuable startup has been breathtaking to say the least. Oyo Rooms is now valued at $10 billion after founder Ritesh Agarwal bought back shares worth $2 billion from existing investors. With the share purchase, Ritesh Agarwal, all of 25 years old, has raised his stake in his company from 9.62 percent to nearly thirty percent. The…

There was a time when attaining the unicorn tag meant a startup had “made it” — it meant easier access to funds, customers and new employees, and the $1 billion valuation was thought to be a precursor to bigger things. But as recent events have shown, it’s possible for startups to stumble even after they’ve gone past the milestone. ShopClues, which had become a unicorn in January 2016 with a $1.1 billion valuation, has reportedly fired about half…

It’s no secret that e-commerce companies in India have been expanding horizontally outside their primary businesses — Flipkart now does flight tickets, and Paytm sells mutual funds. But Amazon has just expanded into a field that’s so far outside its core competence that it takes your breath away — it’s gone ahead and launched an IIT JEE preparation app in India. Called JEE Ready, the app will conduct a free mock JEE exam for students who…

From being founded in 2006, to be acquired and taken public in 2016, to being acquired once again, Yatra has had quite the journey. Travel portal Yatra has been acquired for $337 million (Rs. 2,300 crore) by Atlanta-based software firm Ebix. Ebix already has a travel portfolio in India, which includes Via and Merucry Travels, which together focus “on the luxury, events and sports related traveler”. Yatra will likely become the company’s more mainstream arm,…

  Startups have become increasingly  popular in India over the last few years, and the media has had a part to play — there are endless blogs covering startups, there are more startup conferences than one can count, and even traditional media has woken up to the world of entrepreneurship. But the Indian government has probably taken the step that’ll make startups more mainstream than ever before — it’s gone ahead and launched a show…

Hindsight is 20/20 at the best of times, but it can particularly pinch when you’re a Venture Capitalist and have turned down the investment opportunity of a lifetime. GOQii founder Vishal Gondal has revealed that all the way back in 2011, he’d turned down the opportunity to invest in Oyo Rooms. Back then, Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal was a precocious 17-year-old who was looking to raise money for his startup. He had offered Gondal a…

As far as startup stories go, there are few more compelling than this one.  Oyo Rooms says it is now the third largest hotel chain in the world with 850,000 rooms. The only chains larger than it are Marriott, which has 1,317,000 rooms, followed by Hilton which has 922,000 rooms. The names ahead of Oyo are both venerable names in the hotel industry — Marriott was founded 92 years ago in 1927, while Hilton was…