Moneta (Sep-October) Sep-Oct | Page 9

ISSUE NO: 17 SEP-OCT STARTUP OF THE MONTH – OYO ROOMS Ritesh Agrawal, the 22 year old is the founder of OYO Rooms. In 2012, he founded Oravel when he was 18, Oravel is an Indian version of the online rental site Airbnb. He secured Rs.30 lakh as funding from Venture Nursery in the same year. When he was 19, he chucked the idea of Oravel, the Airbnb business model and changed his business to OYO Stays, a place in the market for branded budgeted hotels, just as Olacabs is a marketplace for cabs. OYO Stays received funding of Rs.4 crore from Lightspeed Venture Partners (LSVP) in February 2014 and DSG Consumer Partners, Singapore, at a pr