OYO Rooms, also known as OYO Hotels & Homes is the third-largest hospitality chain by room count providing a comfortable room stay and ensuring the acceptability of the services by the OYO’s customers in more than 80 nations. Incorporated in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal (one of the youngest Indian entrepreneurs, the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms) it has established itself as the fastest-growing network of hotels offline and online.
Headquartered in Gurgaon, it has expanded its reach worldwide within the span of 10 years and has employed over 17,000 employees globally. However, this is not the only reason why OYO has recorded such a huge success. Its excellent marketing strategy shows that it continues to be a leading hotel chain.
Ritesh Agarwal started his journey at the age of 17 and is considered to be one of the youngest CEOs in India. In 2011, Ritesh moved to Delhi with the intention of starting his own business. Soon, he started traveling extensively across India and stayed in PGs or budget hotels. These unpleasant traveling and stay experiences led him to launch Oravel Stays in 2012.
Ritesh has been one of the judges in Shark Tank India since Season 3.
Ritesh Agarwal – Founder & CEO, OYO Rooms
Oravel to OYO Rooms
Oravel Stays Pvt.Ltd was Ritesh’s first startup. Oravel was designed to enable the listing and booking of budget and premium accommodations.
It was meant to be a destination for short and midterm rentals for bed and breakfast joints, private rooms, and serviced apartments.
Oravel was then transformed into OYO Rooms in 2013 when Agrawal realized that a combination of bed and dinner was not sufficient. He proposed to make it an affordable and standardized accommodation.
OYO rooms are India’s largest branded network of budget hotel chains. It currently operates across 400 Indian cities including major metros, regional hubs, leisure destinations, and pilgrimage towns, and was valued at $9.6 billion in 2022.
They offer the hotels to their clients and retain a proportion of the profits.
OYO Rooms is a budget hotel aggregator in India. In order to standardize different measures in each room, OYO Rooms partners up with hotels, including free wifi and breakfast, flat-screen televisions, spotless white bed linens, toiletries with a brand name, 6-inch showerheads, drinking cups, etc.
OYO uses a mix of demographic, geographic, and psychographic segmentation strategies to understand the changing needs of the customers in the competitive market. OYO segments the market in the following manner:-
OYO Townhouse targets Millennial travelers
OYO SilverKey caters to the needs of corporate travelers
OYO Vacation Homes targets people who come on vacation at the beach or a villa on an exotic island
OYO Life provides residential space
Targeting strategy is the cornerstone of the product development process. OYO uses a differentiated targeting business strategy for different product categories.
Corporate tie-ups for airline travelers
Tours and travels
College students or working professionals who are in search of fully managed homes on long-term rentals at an affordable price
OYO uses a value-based positioning strategy for its customer by providing:-
Standardized budget hotels
Luxurious productive place
Open grass greenery
Better room service
Marketing Mix of OYO Rooms
As OYO Rooms concentrate on co-branding, they operate differently from OTAs (Online Travel Agency). They state that they are working with zero-to-2-star hotels and guest houses, ‘standardizing’ them and getting them customers through their website and apps. Usually, other hotel aggregators simply connect the customer with the hotel by listing hotels on their website and taking a commission as their revenue. They would work out a deal with the hotels with a minimum order guarantee per month and are able to provide discounted rates and deals on the room rates compared to the rates provided by the hotels directly to a normal guest.
OYO’s market coverage has swiftly increased because of being listed with travel aggregators like MakeMyTrip, clear trip, and hotels.com. Their aim is to target small business travelers and budget tourists to eminently swift-cash and that works in favor of OYO because revenue gets realized quicker too.
Product in the Marketing Mix of OYO
Oyo has a wide range of products and services that they offer to their customer as per their need. OYO Rooms, OYO Hotels & Homes has a multi-brand approach. These include:
OYO Townhouse
OYO Home
OYO Vacation Homes
SilverKey
Capital O
Palette
Collection O
OYO LIFE
YO! HELP
Promotion/Advertising in the Marketing Mix of OYO
OYO prefers to promote via various social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. With its exclusive offerings and reduced costs, OYO uses the digital platform to draw new customers.
OYO organizes several online campaigns such as #AurKyaChahiye on YouTube, #OneForEveryone contest, #OYOnauts, Father’s Day Celebration campaign, etc.
Many of the promotions have featured artists from Bollywood to make them more appealing. Sonu Sood is the brand ambassador of OYO.
Brand Endorsement by Sonu Sood
Pricing in the Marketing Mix of OYO
The strategy of OYO Rooms is to attract customers with a lower room price than the hotel’s base price.
The primary objective is to provide an unequaled price that suits the user’s budget. The room price varies depending on the location and luxury of the hotel, between Rs. 399 and Rs. 4000.
Overall OYO Rooms follows a very sensible approach, aimed at providing rooms with outstanding facilities at a moderate rate and generating customer loyalty.
Place in the Marketing Mix of OYO
Oyo rooms work fully online where one can book the available hotels at an approximate cost either via an app or through online platforms.
Once booked with a confirmation one can avail of the service on reaching the booked hotel on a specific date.
OYO Rooms Online Booking
People in the Marketing Mix of OYO
Oyo team comprises 25000 young and professional people who deliver maximum both for the company and individual growth.
With a dynamic team, OYO provides excellent customer service, creates a positive experience for its customers, and in doing so markets its brand to them.
OYO started with traditional marketing to make people aware of its brand. It used billboards, TV ads, print media, flyers, and even taxi ads, especially in cities and tourist areas. These methods helped OYO reach travelers who were not very active online.
OYO Billboard
OYO also focused on local marketing by working with travel agents and sponsoring events. This helped build trust and made OYO a familiar name among different types of travelers. However, while billboards and ads caught people’s attention, they couldn’t engage customers like digital marketing. That’s why OYO later shifted to online marketing, using social media and personalized ads to connect with more people in a better way.
OYO Digital Marketing Strategy
OYO has shifted its business model from hotel aggregator to the fastest-growing chain of franchises offering OYO hotels (OYO flagships, townhouses, studio stays Collection O, Premium), living spaces (OYO Life), and workspaces (OYO Workspaces).
Marketing Approach Adopted by OYO Rooms
Prices in the real estate sectors are rising day-by-day still OYO has managed to provide the best places to people at an affordable price. The Internet brought the world closer and digital media became a huge marketing platform. In today’s digital and connected world, it is important to stay ahead of the competitors. OYO makes use of a 360-degree marketing strategy. OYO used all forms of digital as well as traditional media to reach its customers. Traditional media include both print and television whereas digital media include Google search ads, social media ads campaigns, and OYO’s own website and app.
Assi Reach Gaye? | OYO Rooms Official | Roadtrip
Search Engine Optimization For OYO Rooms
Search Engine Optimization is done to ensure maximum traffic to the website by using particular keywords that have the highest searches from their customer. They understood their customer’s needs and intentions and updated their website accordingly. This ensured people searching for hotels would be redirected to their website.
Social Media Marketing Strategy of OYO
OYO uses Facebook to share location-based posts, promotional posts, and posts related to the detailed progress of the organization. These posts helped people to browse destinations to travel, and regular promotional posts provided customers with offers and discounts, encouraging them to book OYO.
OYO reposts pictures taken by travelers and users of OYO on their Instagram handle. Along with this strategy they implemented Facebook marketing strategies to Instagram. This strategy leads to an engagement rate and encourages people to tag OYO in their posts.
OYO Meme Marketing Strategy
OYO often works with influencers who create content around travel. This is either done via posts or re-posts. These posts are about the experience these influencers have during their vacations and not about their stay at OYO. The core idea of OYO’s influencer marketing is that you will need a place to stay whenever you go out for a vacation and here comes influencers’ experiences.
OYO tweets as well as retweets informative content such as award wins and events, news as well and companies’ CSR activities which adds credibility to the brand in a not-so-obvious manner.
OYO is a well-established online portal for hotel bookings in India that can grow tremendously with the right digital marketing practices and the use of resources. The OYO marketing strategies put up in this article are for a better understanding of the reader. And, also to help the reader shape their ideas into creative campaigns that could be utilized in their business.
FAQs
What are OYO Rooms?
OYO Rooms is India’s largest branded network of hotel chains offering standardized rooms to their customers at an affordable price.
How are OYO Rooms different from online travel agencies?
When you book OYO Rooms, you get a guaranteed OYO experience across all the hotels unlike an online travel agency or marketplace where end-user service is not standardized.
What is OYO marketing strategy?
OYO uses a mix of traditional and digital marketing. It started with billboards, TV ads, flyers, and local partnerships to build trust. Later, it focused on digital marketing, using social media, personalized ads, and influencer collaborations to reach a wider audience.
Does any payment need to be made at the time of booking?
Customers have the option to either make an advance payment or at the time of the hotel’s check out.
I am a hotel owner. How can I partner with OYO?
In order to partner with OYO Rooms, you have to visit partner.oyorooms.com and fill up a simple OYO rooms registration form by stating your name, mobile number city, and property type i.e. home, commercial, and hotel and click on Become an OYO to submit this form.
How much does OYO pay to the hotel owner?
OYO Rooms charges a commission of 22% from its hotel partners. However, this commission does vary according to the services provided by the brand.
Ritesh Agarwal, the visionary entrepreneur behind OYO, has become a trailblazer in the hospitality industry, changing how people view and experience budget accommodations worldwide. From a small-town dreamer to the head of one of the world’s fastest-growing hospitality chains, his journey speaks to his persistence, strategic thinking, and steadfast belief in his vision. He started with Oravel Stays in 2012, a platform for budget accommodations, and in 2013, he conceptualized OYO Rooms, transforming the hospitality landscape.
OYO, short for ‘On Your Own,’ was founded with a mission to offer standardized and affordable accommodations. Agarwal’s deep understanding of the challenges in budget lodging, combined with his innovative approach, propelled OYO’s rapid growth. The platform provided a range of budget hotels, guesthouses, and homes, each subject to strict quality checks to ensure a consistent and comfortable stay. This commitment to quality, along with Agarwal’s relentless drive, attracted attention and investments.
Under Agarwal’s leadership, OYO expanded not only in India but globally. The company’s aggressive expansion involved strategic partnerships, acquisitions, and a robust technological infrastructure. By using technology to streamline operations, improve customer experiences, and support hotel partners, OYO disrupted traditional hospitality models. Agarwal’s ability to navigate challenges and adapt when necessary played a key role in OYO’s remarkable success.
Beyond business, Agarwal is known for his leadership style marked by innovation, adaptability, and a strong commitment to social impact. His efforts to empower small hotel owners have transformed the hospitality sector and created economic opportunities in various communities.
As a young and dynamic entrepreneur, Ritesh Agarwal continues to inspire aspiring business leaders globally. His story illustrates that with a compelling vision, determination, and readiness to embrace change, one can overcome obstacles and reshape industries.
Ritesh Agarwal – Biography
Name
Ritesh Agarwal
Birthplace
Bissam, Cuttack. Odisha
Born
16 November, 1993
Education
College Dropout, Sacred Heart School, and St. Johns Senior Secondary School
Ritesh Agarwal was born into a Marwari family in Bissam Cuttack, Odisha, and grew up in Titilagarh. His family operated a small shop in Rayagada, Odisha. He completed his education at Sacred Heart School and later at St. Johns Senior Secondary School. In 2011, he relocated to Delhi for college.
On March 7, 2023, Agarwal married Geetansha Sood, a native of Lucknow. Unfortunately, just three days after their wedding, Agarwal’s father passed away, which came as a shock.
Ritesh Agarwal – Early Life
Ritesh Agarwal initiated his entrepreneurial journey at the young age of 13 by selling SIM cards. Despite his father’s aspirations for him to become an engineer, Agarwal had different plans. In pursuit of his dreams, he moved to Delhi during 10th grade to prepare for the IIT-JEE entrance exam. During this period, he began selling SIM cards, not only to develop business skills but also to financially support himself independently. Despite enrolling in an engineering college, he made a daring choice to drop out and venture into entrepreneurship.
In 2013, at the age of 19, he earned a spot in the prestigious Thiel Fellowship initiated by Peter Thiel, receiving a $100,000 grant to materialize his ideas. Utilizing this opportunity, he launched Oravel Stays in September 2012, a budget accommodation portal similar to Airbnb, marking the commencement of his journey in the hospitality industry.
The success of Oravel Stays paved the way for the establishment of OYO Rooms in May 2013. This ground-breaking hotel network rapidly gained popularity, providing affordable and standardized accommodations throughout India. Agarwal’s commitment and innovative approaches attracted substantial funding, with the company securing $1 billion by September 2018. Through the visionary entrepreneur’s leadership, OYO Rooms expanded its reach to 154 cities in India, becoming the largest hotel network in the country.
Ritesh Agarwal – Career
OYO Rooms is identified as a potential future unicorn in a study by CB Insights, as reported in The New York Times. The company has secured a total funding of $125 million through four rounds from seven investors. Ritesh Agarwal, the founder, has received numerous awards, including the Business World Young Entrepreneur Award, acknowledging his notable contributions. He is a frequent speaker at entrepreneurial events globally and holds a fellowship with the Thiel Foundation.
Ritesh Agarwal – OYO Rooms
Ritesh Agarwal, a college dropout, stands as the wealthiest self-made Indian under 40, boasting a net worth of $2 billion. His remarkable journey from a modest background to the forefront of the hospitality industry underscores his resolute determination and entrepreneurial drive.
OYO Rooms’ success transcended national borders. In 2016, Agarwal achieved a significant milestone as the hotel chain surpassed one million check-ins and ventured into Malaysia. The subsequent year they witnessed the launch of OYO Rooms in Nepal, solidifying its footprint in South Asia. Expanding further, the company entered the UK, UAE, Dubai, China, Singapore, and Indonesia in 2018. By 2019, OYO Rooms had acquired over 330,000 rooms in 500 cities globally, showcasing Agarwal’s exceptional leadership and expansion prowess.
Under the leadership of Agarwal, OYO, the hospitality and travel tech startup, reached a noteworthy milestone by achieving positive cash flow in the fourth quarter of the financial year 2023. As per a presentation shared with employees, the company concluded Q4FY23 with a cash flow surplus of Rs 90 crore, signaling a positive financial trajectory. This accomplishment sets OYO on a path to mark its first profitable year since its inception in 2013, with an estimated adjusted EBITDA of about Rs 245 crore for FY23.
In September 2018, the company secured $1 billion in funding. By July 2019, reports indicated that Agarwal had invested $2 billion in shares, tripling his stake in the company. In August 2020, OYO Rooms achieved a valuation of $9.6 billion after raising $5 million from tech giant Microsoft. OYO Rooms initiated the IPO filing process in October 2021.
During challenging times, OYO had to make adjustments, laying off 400 employees in December 2019 and more during the lockdown imposed in India in March 2020. Despite this, OYO remains committed to expansion, with plans in key markets such as India, China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
OYO Rooms has garnered support from notable investors including SoftBank Group, Didi Chuxing, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Hero Enterprise, Airbnb, and China Lodging Group.
Ritesh Agarwal – Shark Tank India
Agarwal, the self-made billionaire and highly successful entrepreneur behind OYO Rooms, has earned the distinction of being the youngest Shark on the panel for Season 3 of Shark Tank India. He will join other accomplished Sharks such as Aman Gupta (co-founder and CMO of boAt), Amit Jain (CEO and co-founder of CarDekho Group, InsuranceDekho.com), Anupam Mittal (founder and CEO of Shaadi.com – People Group), Namita Thapar (Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals), Vineeta Singh (Co-Founder and CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics), and Peyush Bansal (founder & CEO of Lenskart.com) in the upcoming season.
Ritesh Agarwal – Shark Tank India 3
Ritesh Agarwal – Investments
Ritesh Agarwal has made 22 investments. Their latest investment was Venture Round – Beyond Odds on Dec 19, 2023, when Beyond Odds raised ₹910M.
During the challenging period of the coronavirus crisis, Agarwal took a proactive stance, announcing his decision to forgo his entire annual salary to support the government. In a show of solidarity, other executive leaders at OYO also voluntarily accepted pay cuts of up to 50%, contributing to building a financial runway for the company. Agarwal expressed his gratitude towards the leadership team for their collective effort during these unprecedented times.
In response to the global business challenges, OYO committed not to reduce the salaries of its employees. The company assured its workforce in India, including over ten thousand OYOpreneurs and numerous OYO-managed assets staff, that their salaries and benefits would remain uninterrupted throughout the nationwide initial 21-day lockdown.
OYO also demonstrated social responsibility by offering its hotels to various groups affected by the lockdown, including frontline medical staff, aircrew, corporates, tourists, paying guests, and stranded foreign nationals. This initiative aligned with government directives and aimed to provide support to those impacted by the pandemic.
Venturing into the healthcare sector, Agarwal has revealed plans to set up five healthcare centers dedicated to the underprivileged in Odisha, his home state. As per an official announcement, the strategic positioning of these centers is intended to address areas with restricted healthcare accessibility, effectively reducing the disparity between healthcare services and marginalized communities.
OYO Founder Ritesh Agarwal’s Speech Leaves Audience Speechless | Youngest BILLIONAIRE from India
Ritesh Agarwal – Controversies
Agarwal faces allegations of deceiving OYO’s co-founder, Manish Sinha, during the company’s early stages. Accusations suggest that Agarwal, through his company OYO, entered into agreements with U.S. hotel owners to rebrand their properties under the OYO name, promising compensation and guaranteed income. However, crucial information was omitted, OYO lacked authorization to operate a franchise business in California. In March 2019, California regulators fined OYO $200,000, and a cease and desist order was issued by Washington after discovering unauthorized offers made to hotel owners and managers.
In September 2020, Agarwal faced a case in Dera Bassi, lodged by a Chandigarh-based businessman, charging him with fraud and conspiracy under IPC 420 (cheating) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy).
An October 2019 report revealed police cases filed against OYO by hotel operators in Bangalore, Mysore, and other Karnataka cities, accusing Agarwal of fraud. Despite this, he successfully secured a stay order on one case in Bangalore.
OYO encountered opposition from 10,000 hotel owners in India who claimed that undisclosed fees, amounting to half or more of their revenues, were charged by OYO when hotels joined the platform.
Ritesh Agarwal – Awards and Recognition
In 2016, Ritesh Agarwal earned a spot in Forbes’ “30 under 30: Consumer Tech” list for his role as the founder and CEO of the innovative hospitality business and app.
Reflecting his remarkable achievements, Agarwal’s net worth in 2020 was estimated at around $1.1 billion (Rs 7253 crore). This positioned him as the youngest self-made billionaire globally, a recognition acknowledged by the Hurun Rich List.
In 2023, Agarwal achieved another milestone by becoming the youngest Shark to be featured in Shark Tank India.
FAQs
Who is Ritesh Agarwal?
Ritesh Agarwal is the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms.
What are OYO Rooms used for?
OYO rooms are popular choices for budget-conscious travelers, tourists, and individuals seeking affordable and convenient accommodations.
Back in 2013, a college dropout spotted the untouched opportunity in organizing India’s budget hotels while travelling through the country. His startup has reached up to 3.5x growth in revenue when it was valued at 10 Billion dollars in October 2019.
It’s easy to guess that OYO Rooms, a thriving venture by a young entrepreneur Ritesh Agarwal, is being spoken about.
The funding marks OYO’s presence as India’s most successful unicorn. OYO has successfully raised a whopping $4.1B, as of August 20, 2021. The company has marked its footprints beyond India—in China, Malaysia, Nepal, and the UK. Here’s an insight into Oyo Rooms subsidiaries, growth and the challenges faced by Oyo.
In 2012, Ritesh Agarwal launched Oravel Stays to enable the listing and booking of budget accommodations. After months of research and experiencing various bed and breakfast homes, guest houses, and small hotels across India, he pivoted Oravel to OYO in May 2013.
OYO partners with hotels to offer world-class guest experiences across cities. Shortly after launching Oravel Stays, Ritesh Agarwal received a grant worth $100,000 as part of the Thiel Fellowship from Peter Thiel, which greatly contributed to shaping his startup.
OYO Rooms currently houses 17,000 employees globally, of which approximately 8000 are in India and South Asia. OYO Hotels & Homes is now recognized as a full-fledged hotel chain that leases and franchises assets.
Over a span of six years, the startup expanded globally with thousands of hotels, vacation homes, and millions of rooms in hundreds of cities in India, Malaysia, UAE, Nepal, Brazil, Mexico, UK, Philippines, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, the United States and more. It is even valued higher than the renowned Taj group of hotels and Oberoi hotel chain.
As per the DRHP filed by the company recently, the total income of OYO, which stood at Rs 13,413.26 crore in the previous FY20 fell by nearly 70% in FY21, standing currently at Rs 4,157.38 crore. All of these can be pointed out as the adverse effects of the pandemic, which restricted the Indians largely to their homes. However, it is important here to note that the company saw a massive 70% contraction in losses though.
The losses of Oyo became as less as Rs 3,943.8 crore in FY21 when compared to the loss of Rs 13,122.77 crore in FY20. This is due to the reason of the huge fall in the expenses of the company, which was recorded at Rs 22,800.12 crore in FY20 and came down to Rs 6,936.07 crore. The company’s expenses on employee benefits also drastically declined by 63% to Rs 1,742.12 crore in FY21, from Rs 4,765.28 crore in FY20 because of numerous layoffs.
The business that undoubtedly bore a considerable amount of the brunt of the pandemic is looking to rise again after the lockdown relaxation this year 2021. Oyo took its first step towards growth by raising funding from the American software giant, Microsoft, as part of strategic investment.
Along with Microsoft, Oyo has a set of other strategic investors, which includes Chinese ride aggregators Didi Chuxing; South-East Asian ride-hailing giant, Grab and Airbnb, American online marketplace for lodging, tourism, and homestays.
The total valuation of OYO is $9.6 Bn, as of August 20, 2021, after the company raised $5 Mn from Microsoft.
Oyo Rooms Subsidiaries
Oyo Rooms have acquired 8 companies to date. Denmark-based data science firm, Danamica was the last company that was acquired by OYO on September 2, 2019, at $10M, after which Oyo acquired Direct Booker on May 9, 2022. The Croatia-based hospitality service provider has more than 3200 homes with it and has serviced 2 mn+ customers so far. The acquisition of the Nikola Grubelic and Nino Dubretic-founded company is expected to strengthen Oyo’s presence in Europe, especially in Croatia.
Oyo has raised a funding of $3.1B in total, as of January 13, 2022. The company raised $29.72Mn in funding on January 13, 2022. Oyo previously raised an undisclosed debt financing round on December 16, 2021. The Ritesh Agarwal-led company raised its Series F round worth $5Mn on 20th August 2021, which was led by Microsoft. The company has seen 22 funding rounds to date.
Softbank Group, Lightspeed Venture partners, Airbnb, Sequoia India, Microsoft, Chinese Didi Chuxing, Garb, and more make up the lead investors’ panel for OYO.
Date
Stage
Amount
Lead Investors
January 13, 2022
Secondary Market
$29.72M
Qatar Insurance Company
August 20, 2021
Corporate Round
$5M
Microsoft
July 29, 2021
Corporate Round
–
Microsoft
July 16, 2021
Debt Financing
$660M
–
March 11, 2021
Debt Financing
$200M
Softbank Vision Fund
Jan 6, 2021
Series F
$7M
Hindustan Media Venture
Dec 10, 2019
Series F
$1.5B
Ritesh Agarwal, Softbank
Nov 30, 2019
Debt Financing
$6.73M
MyPreferred Transformation
April 1, 2019
Series E
$75M
Airbnb
Feb 14, 2019
Series E
$100M
Didi
Dec 7, 2018
Series E
$100M
Grab
Sep 25, 2018
Series E
$1B
Softbank Vision Fund
Oyo is currently eyeing an IPO soon for which the company is likely to file its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) within the next 10 days, according to the reports dated September 23, 2021. The company is looking forward to raising around $1 Bn through its IPO round, which will consist of an offer for selling shares from the existing shareholders along with some fresh issues of shares.
Oyo has shortlisted 3 investment banks – JP Morgan, Kotak Mahindra Capital, and Citi eyeing its IPO that is to be worth over $1 billion, as per the last reports on August 9, 2021. The hotel and hospitality industry was among the most affected industries due to the strike of the Covid19 pandemic.
Now that the world is unwinding, this industry has the potential of witnessing a record recovery. This is also the reason why the software giant, Microsoft is planning to invest in this sector, and Oyo will not lose out on this opportunity of receiving the much-needed funds from Microsoft, which is why it is gearing up towards an IPO.
Furthermore, OYO has allegedly decided to proceed with a domestic IPO, however, they would also keep other options open.
Oyo has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) along with the details of its upcoming IPO round on October 1, 2021. The hospitality giant is looking to raise around Rs 8430 crores, which will be consisting of an offer for sale (OFS) of Rs 1,430 crores and a fresh issue worth 7,000 crores. SoftBank Vision Fund will offload shares worth Rs 1,328.5 crores and shall be standing as the biggest beneficiary of the OFS whereas, Global Ivy Ventures and China Lodging Holdings will be selling Rs 23.13 crores and Rs 51.62 crores worth of stakes respectively.
Oyo might raise close to Rs 1,400 crores with the help of a private placement in a pre-IPO round before the listing. This might reduce the size of its IPO to Rs 7,030 crores.
The upcoming IPO of OYO is on the back foot. This is because the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) the regulatory body of the hotels, has written to SEBI, charging the company over alleged fraudulent and unfair business practices, as reported on October 26, 2021.
Oyo was earlier charged by FHRAI for the ‘anti-competitive’ measures that the company has embraced, with the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Furthermore, FHRAI also noted that an investigation by the anti-trust body is still pending and in its advanced stages. Besides, the company has also significantly failed to disclose the information.
According to the hotel’s regulatory body, Oravel did not make a fair disclosure on the nature and consequence of the CCI-directed investigation and in turn, “has tried to confound investors by conflating irrelevant issues relating to the interim reliefs sought by RubTub Solutions Private Limited (Treebo) and Casa2Stays Private Limited (FabHotels)”
All these are reasons enough that the IPO of Ritesh Agarwal-led Oravel Stays will more likely be rejected because no past incidents where a company was under the CCI probe have been allowed to go ahead with the IPO.
Despite the shiny, successful exterior, OYO’s reputation has been dubious soon after its founding. OYO’s work culture raises questions about the proficiency of its business, according to financial filings, court documents and interviews with 20 current and former employees along with the others familiar with the startup’s operations.
Unethical growth strategies
OYO offers rooms from unavailable hotels, those that have halted its service, according to the company’s chief executive and nine of the current and former employees. This boosts the number of rooms listed on OYO’s site.
Thousands of rooms are from unlicensed hotels and guesthouses, its executives have acknowledged.
To save the trouble from the authorities over the illegal rooms, OYO sometimes provides free stays to the police and other officials, according to nine of the current and former employees and internal WhatsApp messages, as viewed by The New York Times.”
Having a huge base of unmarried couples, a scheme involved workers at properties run directly by OYO conspiring to keep the guests checked in after they left. The workers then cleaned and resold the rooms for cash to other guests and nabbed the money, says an ex-worker.
Complaint of unpaid dues
OYO charges extra on hotels while refusing to pay the amounts to the hotels, which they claimed they were owed, according to the interviews with several hotel owners and employees, legal complaints, and emails viewed by The New York Times. Some hotel operators have filed criminal complaints against OYO, which said it retained payments. Aditya Ghosh, OYO’s head of India operations, dismissed the argument as “noise,” he said, “the disagreement is about the penalties we charge on customer service failure”.
Protests by hotel owners
Independent protests by small-scale hotel owners are surfacing up in mid-tier towns like Pune, Kota, Manali, Ahmedabad and Jaipur as well as Delhi and Bengaluru. They claim that OYO has been eluding them of their promised returns and minimum guarantees by imposing a ream of charges, often without informing them. Many of these charges are not specified in the contract between the owner and OYO.
The protestors state that OYO’s accounting and auditing process, and the penalties associated with petty faults and errors, are so heavy that they sometimes find themselves owing money to OYO at the end of the month.
Covid-19 Impact
Almost every business suffered a lot due to Covid-19, OYO was not any different. The hospitality business suffered a lot, and the occupancy rates of the hotels slow down due to all the lockdown curbs imposed by the Government. Even after the lockdown was over, people were being cautious and were avoiding travelling, so naturally, the occupancy rates were not increasing.All the restrictions created a negative impact on the revenues of the business
Despite the hurdles, OYO has broadened its horizons beyond the bounds of India as well as just hotels. “Anyone who’s tried to innovate and attempted creating large organizations has faced bad press; Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Bill Gates—so I think he’s in the regal company,” said Ankur Nigam, a partner at KPMG. “I don’t think it’s fair to judge whether he’s a good leader. What’s visible is that he’s managed to build a $5 billion company and nothing succeeds like success”.
Oyo happened to be one of India’s most gifted startups. It witnessed its valuation jump to $10 billion in 2019. Additionally, Ritesh Agarwal also had in his hand 30% of the profits. However, belonging to the hotel and hospitality industry, Oyo also happened to bear the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. This is the sole reason why it saw a drop in its valuation in 2020.
The unicorn startup was valued at $8B by the Hurun Global Unicorn Report 2020. After the last funding round led by the software giant, Microsoft, Oyo’s valuation jumped $9.6 Bn, as reported on August 20, 2021. Oyo has bigger plans upcoming that the company feels too early to disclose.
It’s one thing to think of business tactics, and another to be morally wrong. OYO should realize the fact that integrity is what makes the pillars strong in the long run. If it loses its ethics in the first few successful years, it’s impossible that the company would ever be remembered for any good.
Diversification of its humble beginnings as a budget hotel chain, Oravel Stays—the entity that owns and operates the OYO brand clearly aims for the sky and has accomplished triumph in the last five years to mark its eminence.
FAQs
What is the problem with Oyo?
Oyo rooms is facing challenges like protests from hotel owners, Complaints of unpaid dues and unethical growth strategies.
Is Oyo losing money?
Although Oyo has managed to narrow its losses from ₹12,799 crores in 2020 to ₹3,929 crores in 2021. The revenue of the company has plunged rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Who are Oyo’s competitors?
OYO Rooms’s top competitors are MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, Yatra, Treebo and Fabhotels.
A traveller, a tourist and a first-time backpacker. These three have something in common despite their differences in experience. They all want a peaceful night to stay after having a long walk to someone’s dream place or to a normal visit or a trip. The business of giving people home or a place to stay dates back to AD 707.
The hospitality business is one of the indestructible industries wherein famous chains have generations of families leading, in particular, the empire built by people through hospitality. Hotels are the face of this industry. There are buildings that provide people with a place to stay with the utmost comfort. They make people feel cosy in corners not owned by them, yet have rights over them.
Thehotel industry was once owned by the owners with no regulatory bodies on the top of their heads. They had their own business model. But the new generation turned the system into a marketplace that involved filters of the various layers. The whole system was immediately converted into a well-oiled machine. A new system that sided with the huge Indian population.
This huge system turnover was brought by a 22-year-old Indian Boy named Ritesh Agarwal.
The Tourism and Hotel Industry in India is one of the main drivers of growth among the services sector of the country. The tourism industry in India has significant potential as it has rich & diverse culture, historical heritage, a vast range of ecology, and flora and fauna. Indian is known for its geographical diversity, attractive beaches throughout the coastline, 27 world heritage sites, 10 biogeographic zones, 80 national parks and more than 441 sanctuaries.
According to reports, over 39 million jobs were created in the tourism sector which equates to over 8% of the total employment in India. By 2029, the country’s tourism sector is expected to grow 6.7% to reach $488 billion, which will account for 9.2% of the country total economy. The industry has slowed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, as the country had many lockdowns and restrictions on travel.
As per the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI), the Indian hotel industry had a loss of approximately $17.82 billion in revenue due to the ongoing pandemic. Despite taking a hit, the industry is looking to come back up with the help of schemes and opportunities provided by the government. The Indian Government is providing free loans to the MSMEs to help them deal with the crisis and revive the tourism sector.
It is also planning to tap into a staycation, which is an emerging trend where people stay at luxurious hotels to revive themselves of stress in a peaceful getaway. With many upcoming developments, the international tourist arrivals are expected to reach 30.5 billion and generate revenue of over $59 billion by 2028. OYO and Airbnb have in many ways helped the industry grow especially in 2020 and 2021, as domestic tourists are expected to drive the growth post-pandemic.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Experience in Industry
Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO of OYO Rooms
When it comes to trust, experienced companies are trusted more.
Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of OYO, formed the most famous chain of leased and franchised hotel chains. We Indians often refer to it as a place to look for the best deals for hotels, The Oyo Rooms. Oyo Rooms started 7 years ago with a bunch of hotels. The company has now expanded globally with thousands of hotels and vacation homes. Oyo Rooms was started in the year 2013.
Ritesh is the second youngest self-made billionaire in the world.
Airbnb’s Founders
Airbnb was conceived years ago by two roommates who rented out an air mattress in their living room. This turned their whole apartment into a bed and breakfast. This was done to sustain the high-priced living in San Francisco. This gave the company its name Airbedandbreakfast. Airbnb was started in 2008.
So the winner here is, Airbnb, which has a lot of experience.
Both the companies share a common goal, i.e. to provide accommodations, a safe place and comfortable corners to people. Yet both the companies have a very different working business model.
Oyo is often believed to be India’s answer to Airbnb. This article will take you through the different business models and things that are uncommon between the two companies.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Front-end
OYO Rooms
OYO, as people know, is a website where one can go through various filters and find a hotel. But this is the front-end of how the Oyo company is. Oyo is a marketplace for only hotels.
Airbnb
However, Airbnb is a marketplace that helps a traveller find an abode of his type. It can be for lodging, primarily homestays and homestays. It also lets the provider of the property fix a price. This helps both sides as well as Airbnb. The company has recently started offering experiences too.
This shows a more varied and real-world applied concept. So, Airbnb has a better front-end.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Places to Stay
OYO Online Booking
Oyo used to get hotels and book a majority of the rooms for a definite time. It then standardizes the room according to the Oyo standards. Later, list the hotels on its website with huge and heavy discounts. The whole business model used to work by acquiring clusters of hotels for a definite time. Standardizing them and making them proper before listing.
Airbnb Online Booking
Airbnb is based on the sharing economy. It makes owners share the property or rooms they own with travellers who in turn share money with the owners. It is believed to be the most successful business that works on sharing economy. A two-faced system that works for the public.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Stay Duration
Oyo works on hotel stays, so an individual can stay there for a good amount of time. Oyo rooms have no particular rule about leaving a room after a set date. The whole system is similar to how one can stay in a hotel. But in Airbnb, there is a 90-day rule. This rule was introduced in 2017. This rule is only for areas in London. The listings in that area cannot be occupied for more than 90 days.
This makes Airbnb not suitable for very long.
Oyo had 5,855 hotels in its network in the year 2016 with an inventory of over 68 thousand rooms. If compared to today it has a portfolio of more than 35 thousand hotels and 125 thousand vacation homes. It has over 1.2 million rooms across 80 countries and 800 cities.
But, the founder and CEO of Oyo – Ritesh Agarwal made an announcement in the year 2017 that the company had evolved its Oyo business model to 100% franchise, managing, or operating. He also mentioned that his company would no longer go for hotel aggregation and will shift towards becoming a proper full-scale hospitality company. The CEO stated that this change in business model will reduce operational costs. Hence, improve service.
Oyo changed its business model to the Franchise model in the year 2017. The company earlier used to take up some rooms on lease and would sell them to customers. This model involves partnering with many hotels and asking them to operate as a franchise. Then selling their rooms to all the customers at competitive prices.
Airbnb, known for not owning any of the properties. Yet known for having a business that does work on providing shelter. All the company does is providing a platform. A platform on which all the people can rent out properties they own or spare rooms to guests. The property prices are set by the owner themselves. But the company intervenes when it comes to the collection of money.
The Business model of Airbnb is a multi-sided marketplace that connects all the travellers with the host and experience providers. The company makes money from the fees that come from bookings from stays and experiences. Airbnb’s model is exponential when it comes to growth.
Airbnb has a better business model in terms of customer comfort and reach.
Airbnb’s business model is quite simple yet very innovative which often dubs it as the world’s fastest-growing travel site.
Oyo charges around 22% of commissions. This has to be paid every month by the hotels’ owners. However, commissions may vary as per the services and features offered. Oyo also charges a commission out of the room reservation fee according to their services chosen.
Airbnb makes all the money through commissions. It charges a 3% commission on every booking from hosts and between 6 – 12% from guests. Unlike Oyo, Airbnb takes reviews and feedback from both ends. Be it the host or the guest, this makes it a proper marketplace.
Airbnb seems to have an upper hand at everything, making it a proper place to visit before actually vising one.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a tool that lets a company store customer and prospect contact information. It also helps the company identify sales opportunities, record service issues, and manage marketing campaigns. Depending on what type of CRM a company has, they can get basic information about their prospective customer and interact with them. CRM helps the company in better analyzing and understanding their customers, which will help them offer better and more efficient customer service. Airbnb and OYO have very different CRM strategies.
CRM of OYO
The CRM that OYO uses is Blueshifts Programmatic CRM, which has helped the company to become a leader in 1:1 customer engagement across all marketing channels. With Blueshift’s precise recommendations and targeted triggers, OYO has been able to achieve 5X higher bookings from email and mobile channels. The company also has a mobile-first approach which has helped it to expand in over 500 cities across ten countries.
CRM of Airbnb
The CRM that Airbnb uses is Twilio, which helps connect with hosts. How it works is, when a traveller makes a reservation through Airbnb, the host has 32 hours to respond to a booking request and this is possible because of its CRM. There is systematic mobile communication between hosts and travellers using a text message. The host can also decide whether they want to accept or deny the customer. The company also uses Hootsuite social media management, which helps them monitor their follower’s growth and social CRM. The system also helps the company to find certain keywords that can eventually be used in campaigns.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Marketing Strategy
OYO – Marketing Strategy
Oyo is known to use the 360-degree marketing method as it implies having a presence on all forms of digital and traditional media. They also have their unique room strategy which helps in attracting more customers with lower room prices in comparison to the base price of the hotel. Besides that OYO has made many successful multimedia marketing campaigns such as #AurKyaChahiye. It also shares location-based posts, promotional posts, which helps people to browse destinations to travel, check for new offers & discounts and encourage them to book OYO.
Airbnb – Marketing Strategy
Airbnb on the other hand uses the marketing approach to building and maintaining a strong community among its users. It also mainly targets long term loyalty from both the guests and hosts. The main marketing strategy of the company is to take your business in front of your potential guest and turn them into bookers. The customers who previously enjoyed their stay with Airbnb places are sent an email encouraging them to list their own property. Airbnb India aims to make its guests feel welcome, its app did the same, as it has a unified interface on Android and iOS platforms.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Social Media
OYO on Social Media
Over the years the company has leveraged the power of social media as it has been able to retain its ranking and stay ahead of OYO competitors in the market. OYO currently has over 169k followers on Instagram and 65.4k followers on Twitter, with actor Sonu Sood as its current brand ambassador. On all the social media platforms, the company promotes itself as being a brand that offers two types of services which are promoting tourist spaces and a safe space to spend time with your loved ones in your own city. OYO also uploads many ad campaigns like ‘Fir Badhega India’ and ‘Sanitised Stays’ that helps in engaging with their customers especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Airbnb on Social Media
Airbnb has a different approach to social media marketing as it heavily relies on awareness generating strategy. The company also uses travel influencers to further promote the platform as it does its social media relies on user-generated content (UGC). So far the company has over 4.9 million followers on Instagram and 733k followers on Twitter. It also has over 6.3 million photos using #airbnb on Instagram which shows us how widespread the company is. Airbnb also heavily invests in video marketing as a part of telling its brand story, it currently has more than 500 videos generating over 100 million views on YouTube.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Airbnb and Oyo share the same kind of services, i.e. hospitality service. Moreover, Airbnb is a website for people to list, find and rent lodging whereas Oyo is a chain of budget and premium rooms partnering with different hotels. Oyo is all about providing a customer experience within a stipulated budget range while Airbnb doesn’t control the customer experience as such.
FAQs
What is the difference between Airbnb and Oyo?
OYO has more hotel rooms whereas Airbnb has more residential plots. In Airbnb, the apartment may have been misinterpreted, not so in the case of OYO as an audit is done every week.
Are OYO Rooms similar to Airbnb?
OYO’s business model is kind of similar to that of Airbnb, i.e. they are an online aggregator of budget hotels. Bookings for these rooms would be made via the website and the mobile app of OYO Rooms. However, the main focus is always is the quality of service provided.
How to give your property to OYO Rooms?
For OYO Rooms registration, you can write an email to partner@oyorooms.com or give a call to this number +91 70530 70530.
Is OYO successful?
OYO Rooms has been one of the most successful startups in India being the country’s largest budget hotel chain. It focuses on standardizing the hotels in the non-branded hospitality sector.
Is Airbnb better than Oyo?
OYO is better in terms of privacy and security. OYO assures quality service while Airbnb doesn’t guarantee anything from their end.
Indians are fixated on the startup culture. People are choosing entrepreneurship over mundane, 9-to-5 jobs. However, not everyone succeeds as an entrepreneur. A survey revealed that approximately 11% of the Indians are engaged in ‘early-stage entrepreneurial activities’. And only 5% of these early-stage entrepreneurs actually went on to establish their startup.
But keeping these statistics aside, some Indian startups have gone on to dominate their target segments. This post is dedicated to some of the most successful entrepreneurs from India whose ventures have revolutionized the daily life of millions, if not billions, across the globe. The path to name and fame wasn’t easy for them; it involved several trials and tribulations.
Ritesh Agarwal founded OYO rooms in 2015. He was the recipient of the TiE – Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Award (2014), became the first Asian to win ’20 under 20’ Thiel Fellowship (2013), was named one of the top 50 entrepreneurs by TATA First Dot Awards (2013) and became the world’s youngest CEO at the age of 17. Ritesh Agarwal, an Orissa boy coming from a business-oriented family, went to Kota to become an engineer.
But unlike other JEE aspirants, his passion caught hold of him and he did not take JEE preparation seriously. Instead, he wrote a book called ‘Indian Engineering Colleges: A Complete Encyclopedia of Top 100 Colleges’; the book became immensely popular on Flipkart.
He was just 16 when he was selected for the Asian Science Camp held at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). With a penchant for traveling and having lived in tons of hotels, Ritesh observed a common problem at the places he stayed – the exorbitant price of the hotel room was not proportional to the facilities provided. He felt that majority of the hotels in India couldn’t satisfy the basic needs of a traveler on a budget.
Thus, he started Oravel Stays,his first venture in 2012. He improvised his business model and re-launched Oravel as ‘OYO’ which is short for ‘ON YOUR OWN’. Ritesh Agarwal became one of the most revered Indian entrepreneurs through OYO. At the age of 26 he became a billionaire.
Net worth of Ritesh Agarwal as of now is $2 billion. He became the second youngest billionaire after Kylie Jenner in the world.
An epitome of courage and wisdom, Shradha Sharma was at the top of her career while working with famous news media houses such as Times of India and CNBC (Mumbai). During her stint with these organizations, she noticed that no one was willing to promote and air the stories of entrepreneurs—both successful and not-so-successful. She figured out that there are millions of stories storming around but no medium to share them with the masses. Shradha decided to create YourStory, an online portal that hosts entrepreneurial stories and other share-worthy content.
YourStory was started in 2008 and has allowed over 70,000 stories to come to the fore. Shradha Sharma leads a team of 100+ people who work together to offer content in 11 Indian languages. YourStory’s aim is to provide a voice to the roller coaster of emotions that an entrepreneur goes through. Shradha Sharma is the recipient of the L’Oreal Paris Femina Award and has been included in the list of Worlds’ Top 500 LinkedIn Influencers. She is one of the most followed female entrepreneurs in India. Her channel has earned more than 26 million individual views.She is one of the most followed female entrepreneurs in India.Her net worth is of $1.3 billion.
Bhavish Aggarwal, an IIT Bombay alumnus, co-founded the most popular cab aggregator in India – Ola Cabs – with Ankit Bhati. He is the recipient of the Billionth award in 2013, Best startup of the year by IAMAL, and was listed in Forbes30 under 30 list. Bhavish revolutionized the idea of cab-hailing in India by making use of smartphones. Ola Cabs was different from the other cab services at that time in the sense that it leveraged smartphones and GPS technology; thus, it became easy for people to book cabs from anywhere, at any time. Bhavish Aggarwal left a well-paying job at Microsoft to work on Ola Cabs. No one supported his idea but it was his strong will, determination, and eagerness to take risks in life that led him to the pinnacle of success. Bhavish Aggarwal is counted amongst the most successful Indian entrepreneurs. According to Time magazine Bhavish Aggarwal is one of the 100 Most Influential People this year. His Net worth is $ 500 million.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the founder of Paytm, the cornerstone of digitized payments in India. Vijay is from Aligarh, India. A graduate of the Delhi College of Engineering, Vijay worked on several projects and at a small startup before taking the entrepreneurial plunge. He put in USD 2 million to get One97 up and running. One97 is the parent company of Paytm. The payments platform gave Indians access to a mobile wallet, the facility of making payments using QR codes, simplified bill payments, and a lot more. These features made Paytm wildly popular. In this manner, Vijay Shekhar Sharma became an inspiration to budding entrepreneurs all over the globe. He Won the Best Serial Entrepreneur Award at the Rural and Urban Development Summit and Awards 2022 presented by the Minister of State for Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India.
Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, founders of Zomato
Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah revolutionized the food delivery segment in India through its first foodtech unicorn Zomato. The duo are IIT Delhi graduates. Zomato started out as ‘Foodiebay’ and was first launched in Delhi. It was later extended to Mumbai and Kolkata. Now, there is not a single place in India where Zomato doesn’t render its services. Zomato’s mobile app is its USP; the app has an excellent user interface that lets you order food from the restaurant/eatery of your choice and make hassle-free payments. In Jan 2020, Zomato acquired one of its competitors- Uber Eats in India for a valuation of $300 million. In July 2022, Zomato went public with its stock listing at a premium of 53% over its issue price and it commanded a market cap of Rs 43,000 cr as of Mar 2023. In 2018, Prakash Chaddah left Zomato to venture into different fields. Net worth of Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal is estimated to be Rs 2,000 cr as of Mar 2023.
Kunal Shah graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Wilson College, Mumbai, and briefly pursued an MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies before dropping out. Shah’s first startup was a company named Paisaback, which provided cash-back promotions for organized retailers. Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon are the founders of one of India’s most innovative business models – Freecharge. CRED is Shah’s second venture after he sold Freecharge to Snapdeal in 2015 for $400 million. He is definitely one of the most famous entrepreneurs in India.
Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal, founders of Flipkart
Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are the founders of Flipkart. The e-commerce segment in India underwent a drastic change courtesy of Flipkart. Sachin and Binny found discrepancies while searching for products on Amazon’s online store. The duo realized that the USP of their e-commerce initiative would be the timely delivery of products complemented by a simplistic user interface that leveraged the latest technology. Both the founders have now stepped down from their positions in Flipkart after it was acquired by Walmart in 2018. Flipkart is still giving a tough fight to all the e-commerce platforms out there and continues to win the hearts of Indians. India Today ranked them 50 Most powerful people of 2017 list.
Deep Kalra is the founder of MakeMyTrip. The credit for the introduction of online train bookings in India goes to Deep Kalra. A graduate of St. Stephen’s College with an MBA degree from IIM Ahmedabad, Deep worked for GE Capital and ABN AMRO bank. But the office culture and 9-5 job couldn’t captivate him enough. With a $2 million investment from eVentures and his co-founders, Deep Kalra founded MakeMyTrip, (earlier known as ‘India Ahoy’) in the year 2000. The company was listed on NASDAQ in August 2010. After IRCTC joined the race, Deep diversified MakeMyTrip by introducing hotel bookings. MakeMyTrip has mergers with MyGola, TrulyMadly, and the ITC group, to name a few. Deep Kalra is the chairperson of the NASSCOM Internet Working Group, a member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM, and is part of CII’s tourism sub-committee. He was ranked no 1 in a list of most powerful digital influencers in India by KPMG in 2011. His net worth is $ 136 million.
BYJU’S has helped thousands of students who struggle with subjects such as mathematics and science crack some of the hardest entrance exams like the JEE, NEET, and UPSC, CAT, IAS, and international examinations such as GRE and GMAT. BYJU’S has dominated the online education vertical for quite some time now. Byju Raveendran is the founder of BYJU’S. He is an engineer who worked in a shipping firm and accidentally stepped into the field of teaching when he assisted his friends with their CAT exam. Raveendran’s friends cleared the exam with flying colors and this motivated him to take up teaching on a full-time basis. Byju Raveendran started BYJU’s with an initial investment of just INR 2 lakhs. The startup’s valuation has recently crossed $22 billion as of March 2022, and the company have over 115 million registered students.In January 2022, the company joined Simplilearn, Unacademy, upGrad, PrepInsta Prime and Vedantu to become one of the founding members of IAMAI’s India EdTech Consortium.
In March 2022, the company signed a contract with Qatar Investment Authority to establish a new edtech company and a R&D center in Doha.
The concept of bringing the grocery store to one’s doorstep has done wonders across the globe. With it, the problem of waiting in long queues at groceries has now gone for a toss. Indians too now prefer the online route for grocery shopping. And who has dominated this segment? BigBasket. Hari Menon is the founder of BigBasket. With sales of over INR 150 crores per month, BigBasket has cemented its place as one of the big shots in the Indian e-commerce domain. It is operational in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata at present. In 2021 Tata Digital buys 64% stake in BigBasket His company received a lot of awards such as Consumer Internet Company of the Year by VC Circle Awards 2016, Best Online Grocer at Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards 2016, Best retail and e-commerce app of the year at AWS Mobility Awards 2017, etc.
Albinder Dhindsa wanted to provide the services of a grocery, bakery, and general store through a consolidated platform. His dream took the form of Grofers, an Indian online grocery service. Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar founded Grofers. The duo worked hard to infuse new ideas into the online delivery system in India. Grofers is worth around $650 million today. The company has shifted from a B2B to a B2C business model. Grofers was named one of the Top 10 startups in Delhi and Gurgaon in 2014. Grofers had attained unicorn status or $1 billion in valuation, after raising over $120 million from food aggregator Zomato Ltd. On December 13, 2021, Grofers changed its brand name to Blinkit. As of 2021 Albinder holds 5-10% stake in the company.
Sanjiv Bajaj is known as the Chairman and Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv. Born into a family of the Bajajs, a business house started by Jamnalal Bajaj, who led the Bajaj Group to glory, Sanjiv had the zeal to raise their family business to amazing highs. Sanjiv is the son of Rahul Bajaj and great-grandson of Jamnalal Bajaj. After completing his Btech. in Mechanical engineering, followed by a Masters in manufacturing systems from the University of Warwick and an MBA from Harvard Business school, Sanjiv started his career with Bajaj Auto in 1994.
He had been a promising businessman from the very first, which helped him scale numerous prestigious designations within the organization. He had brought the American-style supply chain management to Bajaj Auto. Bajaj is currently serving as a non-executive director of Bajaj Auto.
Along with Bajaj Auto, Sanjiv also contributed to Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, Bajaj Finance for which he was appointed as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman. Sanjiv even led Bajaj Allianz General Insurance to emerge as the 2nd most profitable insurance company in India. Being an accomplished entrepreneur, Bajaj won a range of awards for the same, like the Entrepreneur of the Year” Award 2015-16 from Bombay Management Association, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2017, Economic Times Awards for Business Leader of the Year 2018. Therefore, Sanjiv Bajaj can be regarded as one of the greatest entrepreneurs and business leaders that India has seen to date. Sanjiv Bajaj has a revenue of over ₹ 36,692 crore ($ 4.4 billion) and profit of over ₹ 2,866 crore ($ 348 million) for H1 FY2022-23.
PolicyBazaar has certainly grown to become one of the best insurance aggregators and a global technology company but it might not have secured the illustrious position that it now stands on if it was not for the Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder of the company, Yashish Dahiya. Dahiya was a student of IIT Delhi, from where he did his Bachelors in Engineering. He then went on to complete a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad, which was followed by an MBA from INSEAD in 2001.
Yashish was the MD of the pan-European travel distributor, ebookers.com, and had previous experience of working as a strategy consultant of Bain & Co. in their London office before he founded PolicyBazaar in 2008. Yashish Dahiya had a major contribution to PolicyBazaar since he founded the company along with Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar in 2008, which has successfully become a key influencer in consumer decisions around insurance now. Furthermore, the platform hosts over 100 million visitors a year on average on its platform.
Dahiya was honored with the EY Entrepreneur of The Year (EOY) 2019 award in the Financial Services category and more for all that he had done for PolicyBazaar. Yashish Dahiya is also an extraordinary sportsperson along with a celebrated entrepreneur. He is the Indian masters swimming champion and has taken part in several world masters swimming championships representing India. Furthermore, Dahiya also boasts of having the 3rd fastest half ironman timing and the 5th fastest Ironman timings amongst Indians across all age groups along with having the fastest timings in his age group. In June 2021, Policybazaar obtained the insurance broking license from IRADA and announced that it would set up 100 offline outlets across India. The company also surrendered its web aggregator license. PB Fintech Ltd, the parent company of Policybazaar, opened its initial public offering (IPO) and raised ₹5,625 crore(US$700 million).Shares of PB Fintech Ltd began trading on National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in November 2021.
It seems nothing less than a dream when we talk about a fan of Manchester United, Mumbai Indians, and the Indian cricket team, who founded a company named Dream11 for the love of sports that he nurtures. Yes, it happened with Harsh Jain, who with his founding partner, Bhavit Sheth, founded Dream11 and Dream Sports, India’s no. 1 sports fantasy platform for sporting enthusiasts. That allows users to play fantasy cricket, hockey, football, kabaddi, handball, basketball, volleyball, rugby,futsal, American football,and baseball.
Harsh was the son of Anand Jain, an Indian business magnate previously associated with Mukesh Ambani. He was born in Mumbai, India, and was an engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania, after which he went for an MBA from Columbia Business School. Harsh began his career with Microsoft from where he completed a 2 months Summer Internship from June 2006 to August of the same year after which he went to work in Jai Corp Limited as a Marketing Manager. His father, Anand Jain was then the Chairman of the company. Jain worked at Jai for 13 months, when in 2008 he decided to establish Dream11.
Harsh is currently serving as a Culture Enforcement Officer (CEO) & Co-Founder of Dream Sports (Dream11, FanCode, DreamX, and more) and one of the leading entrepreneurs of India. Harsh is a major inspiration for the budding entrepreneurs of the country for sure. In April 2019, Dream11 became the first Indian Fantasy sportcompany to become a unicorn.In November 2021 Dream11 was valued at $8 billion.In December 2022, Dream11 had 160 million active users in India.
Supam Maheshwari is better known as the CEO and Co-Founder of Firstcry, India’s online marketplace for baby products. Supam was a postgraduate student from IIM Ahmedabad and started Brainvisa, as his first company with Amitava Saha, back in March 2000. The Pune-based company witnessed a steady growth before it was acquired by the US-based group, Indecomm Global in 2007.
Supam served as the Co-founder and the CEO of Brainvisa till December 2009 in order to found another company. He founded FirstCry.com in August 2010 along with Amitava Saha, Prashant Jadhav, and Sanket Hattimattur.
The idea of establishing an eCommerce company focused on baby care products was rooted deep in his personal experience as a first-time parent, who faced numerous challenges in sourcing the best product for his baby. Firstcry has grown to be a market leader when it comes to baby products online. The company currently boasts of over 380 stores across India.
His net worth could be estimated at 190 million USD.The baby products marketplace’s valuation stands at 1.9 billion USD after an equity funding round of 13 million USD with pi Ventures As of 2021.
FirstCry had increased its IPO size from around $700 Mn to $1 Bn, aiming at a valuation of around $6-7 BnIN Aug 2022
Richa Kar is the face of one of India’s largest online lingerie stores, Zivame. Richa was born in a conventional family in Jamshedpur. Kar was an engineering student, who completed her graduation from BITS Pilani and eventually went for a corporate job in Bangalore. Richa eventually left her job in order to pursue an MBA, after which she joined Spencers Retail and then SAP Retail.
Her exposure in the retail industry helped her develop knowledge and practical skills beneficial for the retail industry. While working with SAP, Richa was intrigued about Victoria’s Secret, America’s largest retail company for women’s lingerie, and the success it enjoys. Soon after, she realized that India hasn’t got any such websites empowering women to shop for their own lingerie online smoothly and fearlessly.
Though Richa had a considerable experience of around 8 years by then in the retail industry, her parents didn’t get the concept of selling lingerie and weren’t sure how they would speak of her daughter, who is involved in such a profession to others. Therefore, she gravely lacked any support from her family but with her strong will and zeal to found a startup, she ultimately managed to establish Zivame with Kapil Karekar in 2011. Zivame has now become an online leader in its segment, offering more than 5,000 styles, 50 brands, and 100 sizes. Zivame products come at affordable prices with high quality.
The company that initially started with Rs 35 lakhs, which Richa borrowed from her friends, is currently one of the best women’s lingerie marketplace in India. Zivame has received $69 million in funding at a valuation of $98.6M and her net worth is Rs 749 crores, according to reports. The company currently holds about 26% of the market share of the women’s online lingerie market in India, which stood at Rs 430 crore in FY19.
Ashish Hemrajani is an Indian entrepreneur, popularly identified as the Co-founder and CEO of Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of India’s biggest online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow. Ashish Hemrajani completed his MBA with Marketing as his specialization from Sydenham University in 1997.
As soon as he completed his MBA, he went to work with J. Water Thompson. However, after working in the client management segment of the firm for 2 years, Ashish left the company in order to start his new venture with Bigtree Entertainment and BookMyShow in 1999.
BookMyShow still stands as a leading online ticketing solution for Indians. Under the leadership of Ashish, the company further expanded to New Zealand, UAE, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. BookMyShow also had a feature to buy tickets of sports matches like IPL, ISL, etc. They now have employ over 400 people across offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore. Ashish Hemrajani Net worth is estimated at Rs.3000 Crore as of 2021.
Shiv Nadar is a founding member of HCL Technologies and a prominent Indian entrepreneur, billionaire industrialist, and the recipient of India’s 3rd highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan. Shiv Nadar is the 3rd richest person of India, as of September 2021 with a net worth of around US$29.3 billion. Nadar goes by the nickname “Magus” (meaning: wizard in Old Persian), which he received from his friends.
Nadar was educated in the St. Joseph Boys Higher Secondary School, Trichy, and received his pre-university degree from the American College, Madurai. He again pursued Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, and received his Bachelor’s in engineering.
Walchand Group’s Cooper Engineering Ltd., Pune, which he joined in 1967, marked the start of Nadar’s career. However, he soon left his job role and founded Microcomp, a company that focused on selling teledigital calculators in the Indian market. Soon after that, he founded HCL in 1976 in collaboration with several friends and colleagues and with an investment of Rs 187,000.
The company made revolutionary advancements in the Indian IT landscape and is still regarded as one of the best among the homegrown IT companies whereas Shiv Nadar stands tall and towering as one of the top entrepreneurs of India.
The founder and CEO of the cyber security company, TAC Security, Trishneet Arora, was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 2018 Asia list and also in Under 40 List of India’s Brightest Business Minds 2019 by Fortune magazine, in 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year in Service Business-Security, 2021 Fortune India 40 Under 40 and 2022 he was Awarded as global leader of tomorrow.
Arora failed in the 8th standard but his relentless love for computers and coding drove him through the path of glory to become a professional ethical hacker and a renowned cybersecurity expert. Arora dropped out of school but continued with his studies along with fixing computers and cleaning up software.
Trishneet was only 19 when he founded his own company, TAC Security Solutions in 2013 and he has never looked back since then. The cybersecurity company, TAC Security offers protection to numerous corporations like Reliance Industries, CBI, Gujarat Police, and Punjab Police and others, against network vulnerabilities and data theft. Trishneet Arora’s net worth is $5 million as of now.
The founder of Reliance Industries, Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, or Dhirubhai Ambani, as he is popularly known, was a successful entrepreneur and business tycoon, who took Reliance public in 1977. Dhirubhai has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades heaped on during his lifetime and was also awarded the prestigious Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor after he died in the year 2002.
Dhirubhai was a student of the Bahadur Khanji school. After the completion of his studies, he left for the Port of Aden, Yemen, to work for A. Besse and Co., for which he was later involved in selling shell and Burmah oil products. However, he left Aden and came back to his motherland to start his own company. Initially starting with “Majin” in partnership with Champaklal Damani, Dhirubhai eventually set up Reliance Commercial Corporation in 1966, which was later rechristened as Reliance Industries in May 1973.
Also, it was Dhirubhai who launched the popular textile brand ‘Vimal’. Dhirubhai died when he was 69 and was worth around $2.9 bn upon his death.
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal is the Executive Chairman and CEO of the largest steel-making company in the world, ArcelorMittal, and an Indian steel magnate based in the United Kingdom. Besides, Mittal also serves as the Chairman of Aperam, a stainless steel manufacturer, which spun out of ArcelorMittal. Mittal owns around 38% stakes in his company along with another 20% stakes in the EFL Championship football club, Queens Park Rangers.
Lakshmi Mittal has also been appointed as a member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs since 2008. Mittal was recognized with titles, honors, and awards of various kinds from time to time including “the third-richest person in the world” as announced by Forbes in 2005. He was also announced as the “Business Person of 2006” by Sunday Times, “Person of the Year” by Financial Times, In 2008 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, and more.
Born in a Marwadi family, Lakshmi studied at Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya in Calcutta and graduated from the University of Calcutta affiliated St Xavier’s College with a B.Com degree in the first class. Mittal first chose the business way by founding the steel factory PT Ispat Indo. He went to purchase numerous companies from abroad, like the Irish Steel plant, starting from the state-owned steelworks in Trinidad and Tobago, all of which were successful initiatives.
Mittal ultimately succeeded to come out triumphant in a hostile takeover bid of Arcelor and later renamed it to ArcelorMittal, which is currently responsible for bringing a lion’s share of revenues for Mittal. As of 2022, he was ranked as the 15th richest man in India by Forbes with a net-worth of US$17.8 billion.
Informally known as the Czar of the IT industry of India, Azim Premji is the face of Wipro. Premji is known as an entrepreneur, investor, engineer, business tycoon, and philanthropist who was responsible for cementing the position of Wipro as one of the most prestigious of the Indian multinational corporations through more than four decades of growth and diversification.
Azim Premji is the founding Chairman and a non-executive member of the board of the company and has been twice listed by Time Magazine among the 100 Most Influential people.
Premji went for a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University but he had to come back to take charge of Wipro, which was then termed as Western Indian Vegetable Products. He expanded the business to a large scale and later on discovered the vacuum that IBM left on its expulsion from India. He filled the gap by developing the IT wing of Wipro.
Premji is one of the most successful Indian entrepreneurs whose total wealth was estimated $9.3billion and $25 billion respectively as of feb 2023. Moreover, he is also recognized for his philanthropic nature. He makes most of his donations to the Azim Premji Foundation and had agreed to give away half his wealth by signing the Giving Pledge in 2013. In 2019, he dropped from the 2nd position in the Forbes India Rich list to 17th position after giving away a huge amount to charity.
He topped the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List for 2020
We all have heard about Dunzo but do you know who founded it? The 24/7 delivery app was founded in July 2014 by Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Agarwal, Dalvir Suri, and Mukund Jha. Kabeer Biswas is the CEO and Co-founder of Dunzo, who completed his B.E from the University of Mumbai and followed it with an MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS).
He started his career with Bharti Airtel, Videocon Telecommunications, and then went on to found Dunzo. Dunzo currently provides its delivery services in eight Indian cities including Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
In August 2021, Dunzo launched a new service, Dunzo Daily, to deliver essentials and household items in 19 minutes. January 2022, Reliance Retail led a US$240 million funding round along with Dunzo’s existing investors Lightbox, Lightrock, 3L Capital and Alteria Capital. Reliance Retail invested US$200 million for a 25.8% stake in Dunzo.
Ratan Tata is the former Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group and is still the head of the charitable trusts of the company. A scion of the Tata family, Ratan Tata was the son of Naval Tata and later adopted by Jamsetji Tata.
He is well-known as an Indian industrialist, philanthropist, and one of the few business tycoons who are synonymous with success. Tata was the recipient of two of the highest Indian civilian awards – Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan.
Ratan Tata was a student of the Cornell University of Architecture and completed his Advanced Management Program from the Harvard Business school in 1975. Tata was the apparent successor of J.R.D Tata, who started with the shop floor of Tata Steel and was responsible for expanding the company on a massive scale.
Largely credited with the diversification and growth of Tata, Ratan Tata helped the company acquire numerous businesses and companies including Tetley, Jaguar Land Rover, and more, and scaled the company to unimaginable heights. Ratan Tata is currently featured among the top entrepreneurs of India and an inspirational figure for all the budding entrepreneurs and other individuals.
Nithin Kamath is the Co-founder of the biggest stock-broking company in India, Zerodha, an inspirational entrepreneur, and is famous as one of the self-made billionaires of India. Nithin along with his brother, Nikhil Kamat has also been declared as the richest self-made billionaire in India under 40, according to IIFL Wealth and Hurun India’s 40 & Under Self-Made Rich List 2020 with a combined wealth of Rs 24,000 crores, as assessed in 2020. In year end march 2022 zerodha net profit was 2094.3 crore.
The company has valued itself at $3billion, based on the valuations of employee stock option. Nithin Kamath was a student of Bangalore Institute of Technology but he was never quite inclined to academics. Kamath got into the world of trading at the early age of 17 and eventually, his love for trading grew.
Nithin was successful in trading but also lost quite a lot of his money in the early 2000s. Kamath then returned to a fixed job at a call center, where he worked for 4 years before joining Reliance Money as a franchisee in proprietary trading and advisory services. He worked hard and saved his capital to establish his own company Zerodha in 2010 and emerge at the top of his game with Nikhil.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur distinguished for being the executive chairperson and founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited. Furthermore, she was also recognized as the former chairperson of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Kiran was the recipient of the Othmer Gold Medal for her contributions to the fields of science and chemistry.
Financial Times listed her among the Top 50 women in the business list while Forbes listed her as the 68th most powerful woman in the world. Furthermore, Kiran was also named the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year in 2020.
After completing her graduation from Bangalore University with a bachelor’s degree in Zoology, Kiran went to the fermentation science and brewing at Melbourne University and topped her class emerging as a master brewer in 1975. She struggled to join as a master brewer in India after serving Carlton and United Breweries because the breweries here believed that the job of a master brewer is a “man’s work.”
However, Kiran discovered huge opportunities abroad and joined Biocon Biochemicals Limited, and eventually started Biocon India. In 2015, she joined The Giving Pledge, promising that at least half of her wealth will be dedicated to philanthrop. In 2019, she was listed as the 68th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. She received Firodia Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 for her contributions to science and technology.
In January 2020 Kiran received the international award and became the fourth Indian citizen to be honored with Australia’s highest civilian award. In year 2023 they start
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw scholarship for the students who study in the fields of science, technology or mathematics at the Mount Helen Campus. By 2022 she has a net worth of $3.1 billion.
Back in 2010, paying gas, electricity, telephone bills, and recharging our mobiles, DTH, and more wasn’t as easy as it is now. Then, Freecharge was one of the companies that came into being, which greatly helped the Indian masses to empower their digital ways. Sandeep Tandon was one of the founders of this precursor of today’s digital payments app, Freecharge, which he founded in 2010 with Kunal Shah.
A technology investor and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of India, Sandeep Tandon was a student of Bombay Scottish, after which he pursued a Bachelor’s and then Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. Sandeep started his career with a Los Angeles startup where he worked as an application manager.
However, it wasn’t long before he left the company and initiated his own venture, Celetronix but that was again sold to Jabil Circuits.
Freecharge was the next company that he founded, which emerged as the fastest-growing mobile payments app in India. After a short but successful period, Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal and then eventually acquired by Axis bank, which currently owns the company.
Being a successful entrepreneur with years of experience, Sandeep Tandon is currently serving as the Managing Director of Tandon Group, as an Angel investor, and a mentor to the young entrepreneurs.
As eccentric as its name, Bewakoof boasts of an incredibly successful run as a casual wear and accessories hotspot for the current generation and undoubtedly a major part of its success goes to its Founder Director, Prabhkiran Singh. He along with Siddharth Munot founded Bewakoof.com back in 2010, which has since been a raging success for its unique printed t-shirts, joggers, funky mobile covers, and other accessories.
Both being civil engineering graduates from IIT Bombay, Prabhkiran and Siddharth were well-known to each other. In fact, both of them started with their independent startups right after they completed studies but none of them truly worked before Bewakoof was launched, which disrupted the Indian markets, promoting the “silliness” when it comes to fashion.
The estimated annual revenue of Bewakoof in 2020 was INR 200 Crores. The net worth of Bewakoof is estimated at INR 100 Crores.
The Indian traditional consumer products market was all saturated and boring, hoping for an upcoming disruption, which Mamaearth brought with its honest, organic, and safe products. The initial idea emerged out of a real-life problem that Varun and Ghazal Alagh faced while raising their own baby.
All of us want to extend our utmost care and best quality products to a newborn and Varun and Ghazal Algh wanted the same for their baby. However, it was when they were expecting their baby that they found the reality about the Indian baby products, none of which met the safety standards required to be applied on a baby. They first started to import baby products from the US but that was neither feasible nor less of a burden to their finances.
This made the research, apply for proper certifications and resulted in the launch of Mamaearth after 4 years of hard work and R&D. Mamaearth is currently hailed as the first Asian brand with the MadeSafe certification for its toxin-free and entirely herbal products. Furthermore, it boasts of having served over 1.5 million customers across 500+ cities of India. The parents turned entrepreneurs, Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh have achieved an envious success and are looking forward to a brighter way ahead as one of the most successful Indian entrepreneurs.
The company has expanded into offline distribution through multi-brand retail outlets and exclusive stores, to both online and offline markets. Their next step is to expand the offline business to 100,000 outlets and 100 Indian cities. The company has estimated revenue of INR964 crore in FY22, a growth of 109% over the past year.
PhonePe is akin to digital payments in today’s India. This market leader of a UPI-based digital payments platform was founded by Sameer Nigam, along with his co-founders, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer in December 2015.
Sameer Nigam has an MBA in Entrepreneurship from The Wharton School. After completing his schooling at DPS Noida, Sameer went to study Computer Engineering at the University of Mumbai and then completed a Masters of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Arizona, finally finishing his MBA in 2009.
Sameer served as the Director of Search Product Development at Shopzilla for a little over 6 years, after which he launched Mime360, an online social media distribution channel. Mime360 was eventually acquired by Flipkart, where he again served as a Senior Vice President, Engineering but he left the company after one and half years to start his own company, PhonePe.
PhonePe has since been a roaring success! PhonePe continues to be the top player in the Indian payments ecosystem and accounted for nearly 50 percent of all UPI transactions processed in December 2022, According to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Conclusion
We hope this list of famous Indian entrepreneurs motivates you to act on that startup idea you have in your head. Who else do you think should be featured in this list? And what makes you go gaga over him or her?
Contact: shubham@startuptalky.com
FAQs
Who is the youngest entrepreneur in India?
Shravan Kumaran and Sanjay Kumaran are the youngest entrepreneurs in India. They co-founded the company called ‘GoDimensions’ a development unit, in 2011 at their home at the age of 10.
Who is the world’s richest person?
The world’s richest person is none other than the founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, who boasts of a net worth of $223 billion, as of February 28, 2022.
Who is the richest Indian?
Mukesh Ambani is the richest Indian with a wealth of $103 Billion, as of March 2022.
Is a CEO an owner?
The title of CEO is typically given to someone by the board of directors. Owner is a job title that is earned by sole proprietors and entrepreneurs, who have total ownership of the business. However, these job titles are not mutually exclusive — CEOs can be owners and owners can be CEOs.
Who are the leading Indian entrepreneurs now?
To name some of the most prominent Indian entrepreneurs, we must list:
“It will be much more about responsible travel now. We are going to value our freedom a lot more” – Deep Kalra, Founder of MakeMyTrip on impact of Covid on travel industry
The travel and tourism industry is one of the largest industries in India, it’s a major driver of economic growth globally. India’s tourism industry is experiencing a good period of growth, driven by the flourishing Indian middle class, growth in high spending foreign tourists and coordinated government campaigns to promote ‘Incredible India’. But Due to restrictions linked to Covid-19, the number of foreign tourist in India during 2021 decreased to 1.52 million compared to 2.74 million in 2020, dropping by 44.5%, though foreign exchange earnings grew during the same period, as per the India Tourism Statistics 2022 report. In 2019, India saw 10.93 million foreign tourist arrivals, which dropped by 75% in 2020.
In 2021, the travel and tourism industry in India contributed around 178 billion U.S. dollars to the country’s GDP. Just a few days ago the Indian government has said that the country’s tourism sector will recover to the pre-pandemic level by mid-2024 , they also said that by 2030, the tourism sector will contribute $250 billion to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).According to the recent India Travel Market Report by Phocuswright, the total Indian travel market stood at US$19.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $40.4 billion in 2025, with online penetration reaching 58% in 2025.
The booming IT and outsourcing industry has led to a growing number of business trips made by foreigners to India. After Covid, along with work from home, a new trend has come, i.e., workcation for which travel companies are coming up with very good offers and packages. These plans comprise elegant and peaceful places to work with sightseeing and event sports in the evening. These packages are varied and diverse.
From choosing destinations to connecting with locals and customizing the holiday, the travel startup business in India is looking to add a new dimension to the ever-evolving traveling story.
Here is the list of successful tour and travel startups.
Best Travel and Tourism Startup in India – MakeMyTrip
MakeMyTrip is one of the oldest travel startup in India . The inspiration for this startup came to Kalra when he was booking a holiday to Thailand. He realized that the internet could offer more competitive prices by cutting out the middleman. MakeMyTrip’s mission is to provide customers a one-stop-shop for all their travel needs by providing online travel services that include flight tickets, domestic and international holiday packages, hotel reservations, rail and bus tickets.
ClearTrip
Founders
Stuart Crighton; Matthew Spacie; Hrush Bhatt
Founded In
2016
Headquarters
Mumbai
Top Travel Startup – Cleartrip
Cleartrip, headquartered in Mumbai, was founded by Stuart Crighton, Hrush Bhatt in the year 2005. The company operates an online travel aggregator website for booking flights and train tickets, hotel reservations, and activities in India and the Middle East countries. Cleartrip is one of the few business travel startups in India. It has offices across India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Cleartrip is another travel tech company in India, started its services to the Persian Gulf nations of Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt. On June 21, 2018, Cleartrip announced the acquisition of Saudi Arabia-based online travel aggregator (OTA) Flyin.
Clear trip also operates –
Cleartrip for Business, an online corporate travel management tool. It is a business travel solution for companies
Agent Box, a travel tool for travel agents.
Cleartrip Mobile, a travel booking app for consumers.
Expressway, to let users store traveller profile and payment details securely to make one-click bookings.
Flexifly, a solution that enables flyers to change their travel date and time and switch flights between airlines without any hefty penalties.
Within few years goibibo became a big payer in travel industry. Goibibo acquired redBus in 2013 to enhance its product offering. The 2016 merger of MMT and Goibibo gave MMT depth of content and an access to a bigger consumer base. It’s core value differentiator is the most trusted user experience, be it in terms of quickest search and booking, fastest payments, settlement or refund processes. Along with the usual services travel startups provide, Goibibobecame the no 1 travel startup to introduce real travel booking currency named as Go Cash which can be used without any restrictions or limits of use.
In small towns, this start up company has built up good trust and about 48% of new users are associated with tier 2 and tier 3 cities, it has seen a 65% increase in transacting users since January this year and that it has been ‘successful’ in consolidating its position as the ‘second largest’ OTA brand in the country.
It is the largest hospitality startup from the list of top hospitality startups in India comprising budget hotels. It is usually one of the first names that pop up in people’s minds when they think of cost efficient hotel bookings in India. The startup works in liaison with existing hotels and offers travellers vacant rooms at a cheaper price. OYO Rooms start at a nominal price of Rs. 999. Besides bulk renting hotels, they have also invested in their own properties as well. Click here to know how exactly OYO Rooms work.
The users can also opt for OYO Premium which provides a more-than-basic experience. OYO Rooms are located in the prime areas of the city and therefore they ensure travellers of having the best experience, it is also close to the best sight-seeing destinations and various dining options. The startup also raised an investment of $90 million from Softbank earlier in 2016. In 2019, OYO raised $1.5 Billion in Series F funding led by SoftBank Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia India.
Travel and Tourism Startup in India – Pickyourtrail
Hari Ganapathy and Srinath Shankar got the idea of the startup after their experience from a self-planned trip to Europe in 2012. This platform uses deep tech to let travellers create, customize and book international vacations. Pickyourtrail considers more than 40 factors like duration, travel time, ratings, etc to build personalized itineraries that travellers can further customize & book.
After the trip is booked, travellers can use Pickyourtrail’s app to keep track of bookings and get real-time information on flight and weather updates, restaurant recommendations, and on-trip chat support.
Their goal is to perform best in the tour and travel business when it comes to international trips.
Best Travel and Tourism Startup in India – SCOUT MY TRIP
ScoutMyTrip is a road trip planner ,It works for all sorts of outings, from short weekend travels to long excursions.
The motive that the duo has been able to solve through their startup is to collate information that is currently very diversified. Basically it is an information portal that makes travel easy and accessible for anyone. The company plans to connect travellers with people who want to travel on any particular vehicle. It will also facilitate customised tour packages.
With artificial intelligence, customers can create an itinerary containing the information necessary for their road trip—gas stations, toilets, restaurants, hotels to stay, and points of interest. The human intelligence aspect brings in the ability to personalize information as per one’s needs.
The corporate outdoor and experiential learning model adopted by Thrillophilia in its early days, has proven to be of great significance since it was fairly new concept in India.
Thrillophilia provides you with handpicked adventure travel options. It is best suited for travellers seeking an off-the-beaten-track package for sightseeing, sports, and adventurous activities like water rafting, snorkelling, bungee jumping, and skydiving. The travellers can also curate the best tours and authentic suppliers.
Travel Triangle operates their services with a versatile team of 450+ people. Travel Triangle is operating as an online marketplace model bringing both travellers and trusted & expert travel agents on a common platform. Travel Triangle is a SaaS-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform to help them manage and analyse customer interactions and data.
goMowgli
Founders
Anil Alur and Sunil Abhilash
Founded In
2013
Headquarters
Mysuru, Karnataka
Top travel and tourism Startup – goMowgli
goMowgli is a travel startup that had its name inspired by the fictional character we all loved growing up –Mowgli from Jungle Book. It has a fleet of buses across different states (using the concept of “hop-off buses”) and the travellers can buy a pass for a fixed number of days – a week or two. It is suitable for solo travellers and backpackers who want to travel without a fixed plan or do not want to get in trouble of booking cabs while traveling the city.
goMowgli claims to be India’s first flexible bus network for travellers. Flexible bus network mean is you can catch the bus anytime you want from any place in their network, and get off anytime, at any place.
goMowgli will tell you the exact location of the nearest bus when you switch on the GPS feature on your smartphone. The app is growing in popularity very fast. At present, their revenue generation is basically based on the passes they sell (Rs. 1700/day) . And their marketing is mainly based on social media and word of mouth.
Tripoto is a Delhi-based startup founded by Anirudh Gupta and Michael Lyngdoh and one of the best travel startups in India. It allows users to create itineraries for their future trips that they can also share with other travelers.They can share their travel experiences, related content and pictures, itineraries, maps, stories, and reviews.
The startup has one of the largest communities of travellers in the world where people get a chance to share their travel experiences, discover unique trips and travel itineraries by other travelers and connect with them around the world through the website. Tripoto’s aim is to become the largest source of crowd-sourced travel content platforms in the world by enabling users to share their credible travel information.
ExTravelMoney
Founder
George Zachariah
Founded In
2015
Headquarters
Kochi, Kerala
Travel Startup in India – ExTravel Money
ExTravelMoney is an online aggregator and marketplace for forex services that bring the hyperlocal eCommerce model to foreign exchange business and is helping users save money on currency exchange and money transfer from and to abroad. Users can use this platform to search for banks and money changers near them who offer these forex services. They can also compare the exchange rates and total cost of a forex service including the services fees, tax charges, even the rating of each forex store they are searching for.
The users can therefore make an informed decision based on this knowledge and book the cheapest and the best forex services near them directly from their app ExTravelMoney. If you are traveling in a foreign country, foreign exchange is an important component to plan. It isn’t easy to purchase forex due to the time and the hassle it takes in finding the best exchange rates. The website provides travelers with forex dealers across the country to bring them the best available exchange rate in the market and all they need to do is log in to their website, state their forex requirement, and then it connects you to the nearest forex dealer.
Nearify is an app founded by Mayank Kumar, Saurav Singh and Vivek Srivastava in 2012 that provides users with updated information on events that are happening around them. Like information on the city, major tourist attractions, and fairs & festivals happening in the area. All the user needs to do is to key in the name of the city to find listings of meet-ups, workshops, music concerts, and cultural hangout places in their close proximity.
It is best suited for travelers who want to know what’s happening in other locations of the place they are traveling to and wish to plan their itinerary and also don’t want to miss out on the social events happening in nearby cities or locations.
TripHobo
Founders
Praveen Kumar, Saket Newaskar, and Karthik Ramachandra
Founded In
2012
Headquarters
Pune, Maharashtra
Travel Planning Startup – TripHobo
TripHobo is a Pune-based travel startup that has an innovative new travel platform where the collective effort of their dedicated team of travel enthusiasts. They are trying to transform its user’s travel experience by making travel more sharable and personally tailored. The platform lets you connect with travel buddies around the world and hence makes your experience even richer and memorable.
TripHobo is a vacation planning website that is also the world’s leading vacation planning platform on which you can plan trips to about 150,000 destinations worldwide. It lets users discover great itineraries created by travellers just like them.
iTraveller
Founders
Shiju Radhakrishnan and Sanjay Kumar
Founded In
2011
Headquarters
Banglore
Top Travel Startups – iTraveller
It’s an online travel platform for travellers to explore travel destinations, plan and book their trips in advance. It allows users to dynamically create self-serviced customized travel packages after receiving inquiries from clients.
The users can also compare reviews and plan their activities and sightseeing for their trips, it also involves native wholesale suppliers who are responsible for the operational aspects of the business of your trip that includes ground handling and fulfillment. iTraveller has created more than 2 lakh trips featuring over 20 travel destinations across the globe and more than 60 native wholesale suppliers from across these destinations. The brand of iTraveller is now changed to Lastminute.
SeekSherpa
Founders
Sukhmani Singh and Dhruv Raj Gupta
Founded In
2014
Headquarters
Delhi
Top Travel and Tourism Startup in India – Seek Sherpa
The mobile marketplace connects travellers with the local people in the city you are traveling to. These people are called “Sherpas” and are chosen after a thorough background check and verified authenticity. They offer numerous itineraries, popularly known as “micro tours”, from sightseeing, photography tours, and heritage walks and food walks to explore a location from the eyes of a local guide – Sherpa.
Sherpas can be from any profession and list experiences that will cost you less than Rs. 3,000 per participant. This is a unique feature that SeekSherpa offers, it helps you in traveling better by interacting with the residents of the place you are seeking to explore. This way, your trip is better, well experienced, and more memorable.
SOTC
Founder
Mr. Vishal Suri (Managing Director)
Founded In
1949
Headquarters
Mumbai, India
Top travel and Tourism Startup in India – SOTC
SOTC India is a leading travel and tourism company active across various travel segments including Leisure Travel, Incentive Travel and Business Travel. It is one of the leaders in segments, namely Escorted Group Tours, Customized Holidays, and Incentive Travel amongst others. SOTC offers customized holidays around the world, Corporate Tours and provides packages for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) related travel needs.
Conclusion
Travelling is one of the most exciting and important parts of our life. It teaches us a lot. These startups in the tourism industry in India are helping us to make our journey better, safer, and easier. If we have missed out on any travel startup in India, do let us know in the comments.
FAQs on Travel Startups in India
How to start a travel business in India or how to start a travel company in India?
Best tips to start a travel business in India or a travel company in India:
Step 1: Prepare a plan for your travel business.
Step 2: Brand your travel business along with dealing in legal formalities.
Step 3: Manage your funding strategy.
Step 4: Pick a great location and hire employees.
How to start an online travel agency in India?
The list of requirements to start an online travel agency in India:
Make a thorough research on your competitors and the market.
Find your own niche in the travel industry.
Build your team.
Take a call on a travel website or a travel software, or both.
Oyo Rooms is the largest branded community of lodges presently running 450,000 listings in 5,000 towns in India, Malaysia, UAE, Nepal, China and Indonesia. The organization commenced its operations by constructing its enterprise version around the aggregator enterprise version.
Oyo rooms working model operates on the investment worth $1.7 Billion (modern investment raised on April 1st,2019). Meanwhile, the organization values $5.7 Billion with its headquarters in Gurgaon, Haryana. Oyo rooms offer their services in India in conjunction with worldwide locations like China, Malaysia, Nepal, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan with serving more than than 500 towns in India whilst running greater than 45,000 rooms globally as of January 2019.
Ritesh Agarwal, founder of Oyo Rooms stated that Oyo is now including 10,000 rooms or near 500 lodges each month below its franchise version. The shift in its enterprise version has additionally allowed Oyo to elevate its fee. Earlier, below the aggregator version, Oyo charged 18% fee from resort proprietors each month.
Moving to a franchise version had little or no effect on the pricing of rooms, the finance class of rooms priced Rs1,000-1,500 in line with nighttime will stay unchanged. The finances Oyo Rooms class below the franchise version will now fee everywhere among Rs1,000 and Rs2,500; the Oyo Town House class has a price range of Rs2,500 and above, and holiday houses below the Oyo Homes class will cost Rs1,000 in line with the room.
Oyo Rooms Dominate the Market by 68%
Earlier, the organization used to arrange the accomplice with lodges, rent a few rooms, and promote them below its personal logo. Even though the procedure remains the same, Oyo Rooms enterprise version has modified its path to a new structure. To preserve the logo image, they make the companion’s offer offerings at predetermined requirements whilst they lead them to greater visibility to their user-base.
Earlier the company used to rent lodges at a predetermined rate and supplied them to the customers at a take-up rate. This has been modified to a fee-based totally sales version. Oyo rooms charge a commission of 22% from its hotel partners. However, this commission does vary according to the services provided by the brand.
Agarwal was among the select few chosen for the two-year mentorship program run by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, early Facebook investor and the person who many name as the worldwide tech industry’s influential figure.
Since its launch in 2013, Gurugram-based Oyo has emerged as one of the biggest motels and rooms platform for travelers looking out no-frills, cushy lodging at much less expensive prices. While Oyo Rooms has modified lots over the years, tweaking and re-modelling of the unique industrial enterprise concept for Oyo, the middle concept is to attach travelers with motels.
The company has gone from budget hotel aggregator to a hospitality chain and a real estate business too. Oyo rooms cost a fee of 22% from its lodge companions. However, this fee does range steady with the offerings furnished with the resource of using the brand. The beginning started out on an asset-mild version however over the years, with investments throughout numerous companies inside Oyo, the organization has long passed from rate range lodge aggregator to a hospitality chain and an actual property enterprise too.
Oyo Rooms Business Model
The organization could rent the lodge rooms and revamp it to a standardized format, allow reserving through its website or application. However, in 2015, the organization started moving to a franchisee version, wherein, in choosing leasing rooms, it started out offering partnerships to motels. Here are the numerous verticals that Oyo has brought over the years.
Hotel room aggregation
Franchise version
Owned motels
Co-living
Hotel Room Aggregation
Oyo in 2016 had 5,855 motels in its community with a complete stock of over 68K rooms, while nowadays it has a portfolio of greater than 35K motels and 125K holiday homes, and over 1.2 Million rooms throughout 80 worldwide locations and 800 cities. Its verticals range from vacation homes, enterprise motels, casinos and co-working areas.
That boom has additionally been made feasible because of the fact that the startup saved iterating the version and ensured that it now no longer stays restricted to the rate range lodge space. With extra than one round of investment secured from maximum important traders which include Softbank, the startup ventured into extra modern classes and has continuously released new ventures or manufacturers below its umbrella.
Oyo Rooms in India VS China
Franchise Model
In 2017, Oyo CEO Agarwal announced that the organization has “developed its enterprise to a 100% extraordinary franchise, manipulate or operate. We no longer anymore do lodge aggregation and feature flip out to be a full-scale hospitality organization.” Oyo’s shift from lodge aggregation to franchise version were given here in particular to lessen its operational fees and to enhance serviceability, the organization stated.
For instance, Oyo Townhouse is deliberate and constructed throughout the needs and desires of millennial visitors beginning in particularly designed beds, TVs, open areas for conferences and greater. While merchandise like Collection O is a mid-scale enterprise lodge presenting larger and spacious rooms with pinnacle rate furnishing and linen, on-request laundry, limitless breakfast, 24X7 in-room dining, high-velocity WIFI workstations in each room etc.
These merchandises were a separate Oyo product, in which the organization rents out homes and renovates them based totally on the wishes and plans. So, overall, the organization has stopped reserving unique rooms for Oyo visitors, however alternatively, books the complete lodge or flat below its call and rents it out to customers.
Owned Hotels
Further, the organization gives its lodge companions the choice to run the assets both themselves or allow Oyo to run the operations. The organization additionally gives economic guide through its partnership with economic institutions that have allotted loans to greater than a hundred properties. Loans are to be had for upgrading space, operating capital and different wishes.
As in retaining a combined report with the resource of using Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) the Indian co-living marketplace is predicted to boom at a robust CAGR of 17% within the subsequent 5 years. Identifying the marketplace opportunity, Oyo entered the phase in 2018 with Oyo Life, which operates a fully-provided condo housing arm of Oyo.
Oyo believes that the maximum important benefit of co-living areas, alternatively than paying visitors or serviced apartments, is that it notably cuts down the value of residing because of the fact now no longer handiest do humans proportion the lease however additionally revel in upload on offerings which include each day housekeeping, laundry/ on-name resident facility control; curated meals, etc.
Oyo works with big builders and impartial asset proprietors to take over a whole building, tower or an impartial house. Oyo Life isn’t an aggregator and takes obligation for a stop to stop control of areas, rent whole homes, furnish, clean rework.
The Startup scene in India took off after it realized the potency of this sector. This was not because of some magic and it obviously didn’t happened overnight. This took a long time. It took off due to many internal reasons like massive Fundings, growth of Angel Investors chain, boom in technology and the need to change.
The startup ecosystem in India is the 4th largest in the world. India has produced some very famous startups like Paytm , OYO Rooms , Redbus , Zivame. In 2018, 8 startups were evaluated at $1 Billion. But among a ocean of startups, why only 8 ?
Is India a saturated market?
India stands unchallenged , holding the second spot in global population. It is a major economy that is dependent equally on both the rural and urban sides. However, major startups serves only the pat living in the urban areas. Due to this the population of the rural areas go unnoticed. The main problem is here. Too many startups are serving a very small part. This makes the economy more and more saturated. This chasing of very few customers by a lot of companies makes the startups to fail.
Problems for startups in India
Fear to take risk: A major problem is the Funding in India. Investors in India lack trust and the risk taking factor. Only a portion of investors have the will to give in to a new comer. Due to this a majority of startup population cannot succeed.
Startup rate of nations
Managing the Business: After a business takes off and starts to shape up it is required to be maintained well. Not only from this point. The founders should take care of the management from the start to prevent the company from going into problems like debts.
Pressure from the surroundings: There’s a term for people who gym. Its called ego lifting. Ego lifting is something that is born out of jealousy and pressure from friends. Startups also follow this. This leads to their downfall.
Why Foreign countries?
Countries abroad provide a lot of scope to Startups. Moving abroad gives the Startup a broader audience. A more technological advanced audience. Apart from all the money saving and tax reasons. Moving abroad also enables the startups to gain fame for being associated with foreign countries.
What we all already know is the fact that India doesn’t have a proper infrastructure. Our nation lacks financially, technologically. All this affects the infrastructure directly. Startups move abroad to use the better infrastructure.
Foreign countries have hubs and clusters. Countries like Estonia have special things to provide. They are minimal taxes, low rent places and many other things. Countries like these have there own angel investors chain. Different countries specialise in different sectors. For example Israel is known fro its strong base in Security and Agriculture.
Sales
When it comes to population or number of customers. India is not behind. So, wheres the issue? The issue lies in the fact that not a major portion of the population is through with the technological advancements. Not many are interested to know about what goes around in the world. This narrows the range for any startup in India.
To increase the sales and the range startups move abroad.
Finding Money
To find money one should know where to look. Only 8 Indian startups made about $1 Billion in a year. The failure rate is much more than the success. So, current India is not a place to look for money. Due to this not many investors come forward in order to fund the startups.
So, Indian startups move abroad to get the investments rolling. Above this the population outside India has a very acceptable mindset.
“Businesses, by very definition, are aspirational and going international is part of it. It gives more exposure, better access to financial investors, and of course a hope of revenue growth,” said Yugal Joshi, vice-president of Texas-based consulting firm Everest Group.
Favourite countries for Startups
Serbia
In the recent few years Serbia has seen US companies building up operations there. Serbia is changing rapidly to evolve into a hub for application development , programming and IT outsourcing. The reasons behind this sudden change is the multilingual and well educated population. They also provide for fancy and attractive incentives for IT investments from other countries.
Australia
The countries small yet talented workforce and closeness to Asian markets, makes this a good option for startups. The country also attracts a lot of immigrants who are highly qualified.
Estonia is a place with one of the highest per capita rate in terms of startups. Estonia is the most suitable place for entrepreneurs. It has a very entrepreneur friendly tax policy. It provides many attractive incentives to foreign investors.
India too appears in the list for suitable places. But the country is still like molding clay. It is still building and it would take time. It would take time to generate investors or a proper ecosystem. But for now India is not a suitable ground to play for startups.
Bharath
