This 24-year-old Indian has raised Rs 7200 crore to expand footprints in China, UK and more

Oyo Hotels, an Indian startup for booking reliable rooms online, on Tuesday announced a capital raise of USD 1 billion (around Rs 7,280 crore) in a fresh round of funding led by SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA) through SoftBank Vision Fund for further expansion.

PTI reported that the funding round also saw participation from other existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia and Greenoaks Capital. The company has already raised USD 800 million, and has made a further commitment of USD 200 million, OYO said in a statement.

"In the last 12 months, we have increased our international footprint to five countries - India, China, Malaysia and Nepal, and more recently in the UK. With this additional funding, we plan to rapidly scale our business in these countries, while continuing to invest further in technology and talent," OYO Founder & CEO Ritesh Agarwal said. 

According to news agency Bloomberg, Oyo will pump in $600 million of the fresh funds in China, where it started operations only 10 months ago. 

Oyo was founded by Ritesh Agarwal, a 24-year-old college dropout after he traveled around India on a small budget for five years. 

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Oyo's existing partners, SoftBank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture have put in $800 million and committed for another $200 million. The funding has valued the startup at $5 billion.