Hospitality firm OYO has raised $5 million from global technology firm Microsoft Corporation in a strategic round at a $9.6 billion valuations, as per the regulatory filing.
Moneycontrol had reported that the company was raising a strategic investment from Microsoft at a valuation of around $9 billion on July 30.
The development comes at a time when the company is massively increasing its tech focus. The travel technology player is set to introduce several innovations and commit to investments in technology with an aim to optimise the revenues for hotel owners while improving the user experience for customers.
Also read: What does a late stage bet by Microsoft mean for OYO?
On August 19, it also announced plans to hire 300 technology professionals including software development, engineering, product managers, designers, data scientists across entry-level to senior leadership roles.
The expanded design, product, and engineering teams will be responsible to build long-term capabilities for OYO from scratch and update the current tech stack.
OYO currently has a tech stack of over 50 products and 500 microservices, including its consumer and partner apps such as OYO, OYO OS, Co-OYO, as well as several applications led by artificial intelligence, machine learning, and analytics such as a dynamic pricing app called tariff manager.
The company claims to be the third most downloaded travel app globally.
Before this, the homegrown firm announced the closure of a debt financing round of $660 million from global institutional investors such as Fidelity Investments, Citadel Capital Management, and Varde Partners with an aim to retire some of its existing debts and pump up its operations and product technology.
The company is also gearing up for an initial public offering and has shortlisted investment banks JP Morgan, Kotak Mahindra Capital, and Citi. Moneycontrol first reported about the company's plans to go public.
The company did not respond to the query.
