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OYO Rooms appears to be on an adventurous journey as the company continues with its acquisition spree. This time India’s largest hospitality company has acquired Weddingz, an online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors. The latest acquisition marks OYO’s third acquisition of the year as the SoftBank backed company continues to pursue aggressive expansion strategy.
The acquisition deal was a cash-and-stock deal, but the exact valuation of the deal has not been disclosed.
OYO will look to capitalize on its latest acquisition for its newly launched business OYO Auto Party, which offers affordable wedding venues and banquet halls for weeding and other events.
“We look at supply—whether it’s hotels, homes or banquets—and are always interested in companies that have it and operate in a very similar manner to OYO,” said Maninder Gulati, chief strategy officer at OYO in a media statement.
Mr. Gulati added that the Mumbai based Weddingz fits into OYO’s acquisition strategy owing to startup’s amazing technology and distribution capabilities.
Weddingz may be barely a two year old startup, but counts quite a few high-profile investors among its many backers. These includes Google India Managing Director Rajan Anandan and Sixth Sense Ventures.
OYO’s recent foray into online weeding marketplace makes lot of sense, especially considering that Indians have huge propensity for fat weddings. As per U.S headquarter venture capital firm CerraCap Ventures, market for wedding-related services in India is approximately worth $40 Bn.
OYO Rooms is firing on all cylinders
To say that OYO Rooms is pursuing aggressive expansion strategy would an understatement. During last few months the Gurugram based startup has been a roll as far as the expansion goes. The company few weeks back marked its most ambitious international expansion by entering into the highly competitive Chinese market.
China, by the way, is OYO’s third international expansion. The company is already offering services in Nepal and Malaysia. Separately, the company is also pursuing talks to raise more funds from SoftBank and other investors.
OYO’s appetite for fundraising and expansion is quite understandable, considering that it is competing in a space that is marked with hyper competition. Not only does it compete with startups like Fab Hotels and Trivago, but also established players like Makemytrip and Clear Trip.
