OYO is currently the most important startup in India, if not the world.

Hyperbole?

Maybe not.

For one thing, the budget hospitality startup is currently the great white hope for SoftBank and its $100 billion Vision Fund, the biggest and most influential VC in the world. If SoftBank’s “crown jewel” turns out to be a lump of coal, the fund can all but kiss its chances of raising the second Vision Fund—which is already struggling to get off the ground—goodbye.

For another, OYO is India’s second-largest startup in terms of valuation.

AUTHOR

Sumanth Raghavendra

Sumanth is a serial entrepreneur with more than eighteen years experience in running startups. He is currently the founder of Deck App Technologies, a Bangalore-based startup attempting to re-imagine productivity software for the Post-PC era. Sumanth’s columns appear regularly in leading publications. He holds MBA degrees from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management, USA.

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