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.

You educate the market, evangelise the concept, and acquire your nearest competitor to become the veritable 800-pound gorilla in your space, while you watch your nearest peers die or become marginalised in a brutal market.

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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