OYO is SoftBank’s Trojan Pig

OYO Rooms is a company on a tear and wants to be the world's biggest hotel chain but are these dreams its own or is it merely a proxy for someone else's ambitions?

OYO recently raised $1 billion to fund expansion all over the globe. This round of funding reportedly valued the company at $5 billion

But even before it has proved its model in India, OYO is on an overseas spree

The company represents multinational conglomerate SoftBank and its $100-billion Vision Fund

What does it take to be an SPV for SoftBank? How does this impact the market and competitors?

For a moment, imagine yourself in the shoes of Deep Kalra, the founder of travel website MakeMyTrip.

You start an India-focused internet startup long before India becomes the destination du jour for VCs worldwide, long before Indians get comfortable with transacting online.

You build a business over a decade, wading through policy changes, technology upheavals, market disruption, and take your online travel startup from idea to IPO.

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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