The hotel aggregator startup, OYO Hotels, on Tuesday said it will raise $1 billion (around Rs 7,300 crore) in a fresh round of funding round from its existing investors led by SoftBank at an estimated value of $5 billion.

This makes OYO Hotels India’s second most valuable startup after digital-wallet startup, Paytm, and also valued higher than its listed peers.

At current valuations, $ 5billion (around Rs 36,000 crore), Oyo Hotels is now valued higher than the market capitalisation of the top five listed hotel-chains put together.

Indian Hotels with a market capitalisation of Rs 14,812 crore, is the most valued listed hotel-chain in India, followed by EIH (The Oberoi Group) (Rs 8,659 crore) and Lemon Tree Hotels (Rs 5,506 crore).

Founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal at the age of 18, Oyo now has a presence across 350 cities in five countries: India, China, Malaysia, Nepal, and the UK. Agarwal is also the youngest person on “Barclays Hurun India Rich List 2018” with a net worth Rs 4,600 crore.

The company had recorded a net sales of Rs 125 crore and posted a net loss of Rs 364 crore during 2016-17, according to Registrar of companies (RoC). The company is yet to file financials for 2017-18 with RoC.

First Published:Sept 25, 2018 5:33 PM IST