Ritesh Agarwal has engineered a $2 billion company-management investment round in OYO Hotels & Homes, the company he founded in 2013 and leads as CEO now, at age 25. The transaction, which is pending shareholder and regulatory approval, is slated to occur via Agarwal's Cayman Islands-based RA Hospitality Holdings. The deal is "one of the first founder- and executive-led management purchases in the technology and hospitality sector globally, according to OYO. The $2 billion will buy shares from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia India, though those companies will remain OYO investors. The investment will triple Agarwal's stake in OYO.
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The company's revenue grew 4.4 times year over year in June. It manages 850,000 hotel rooms that it has leased, franchised or partnered on and 300,000 rooms in urban and vacation homes. Of those more than 1 million rooms, 200,000 are in India, the company's home base. The portfolio spans more than 800 cities in 80 countries.
The company plans to use the funds to boost its expansion plan in India, the U.S., China, the U.K., the European Union and Southeast Asia.
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