The valuation of Oyo, once India’s second-most valuable startup at $10 billion, has dipped to $2.4 billion in a new funding round.
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Adtech startup InMobi is eyeing a valuation of about $10 billion in an initial public offering it is planning for next year, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
The firm plans to list in India, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the deliberations are private. InMobi is profitable and plans to shift its domicile from Singapore to India in the coming months, the sources added.
An IPO in India at a valuation of $10 billion would make this one of the biggest listings by a local software startup. The majority of startups to list in India in recent years have sought valuations below $5 billion. Paytm, which listed at a $20 billion valuation in 2021, has seen its market cap fall to $3.5 billion since.
InMobi is planning to list at the group level, which includes its advertising arm as well as investments and ownership in Glance, a unicorn startup that operates an Android lockscreen platform, the sources added. InMobi expects to generate an annual revenue of more than $700 million by the end of March, one of the sources said.
An InMobi spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday.
InMobi, founded in 2007, was the first Indian startup to become a unicorn, but the firm has had its share of ups and downs as it initially struggled to secure its foothold in the digital advertising space, dominated by Google and Meta.
InMobi operates a comprehensive advertising platform that integrates demand-side and supply-side technologies with a large ad exchange. It serves tens of thousands of app partnerships across 50 countries. The firm today counts Mastercard, Samsung, Vodafone, Ford, Kellogg’s, L’Oréal Paris, Nokia, Kia, KFC, Dell and Coca-Cola among its clients.
InMobi has raised less than $300 million to date, and counts SoftBank among its backers. SoftBank once wrote off its investment in the startup.
In the past decade, it has expanded its advertising business and built a consumer business, which it leverages for Glance.
Glance brings news, information on local events, sports, media content and games directly to the lockscreen of Android smartphones. The app is installed on more than 450 million smartphones and is active on about 300 million of them. Glance recently started a pilot in the U.S., TechCrunch reported.
The firm plans to soon launch a revamped version of Glance that will incorporate generative AI to bring personalized feeds and experiences to users. One feature will allow users to see themselves in clothes from different brands, according to internal demos reviewed by TechCrunch.
Glance doesn’t collect personal data on users. InMobi is betting that generative AI will help the app adapt to user preferences and offer experiences that will hook them to the platform and drive commerce.
InMobi is planning to roll out similar generative AI offerings in its advertising business to enable the creation and insertions of native advertisements into a wide range of content, according to the demos.
Google has joined investors backing Namma Yatri, an open-source ride-sharing app in India that is eroding market share from Uber and Ola with its no-commission model.
Investors are betting on Indian wealthtech startups as a growing middle class turns to diversify investments and startups challenge traditional financial advisors for high-net-worth clients.
CoinDCX, India’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, is expanding internationally through the acquisition of BitOasis, a digital asset platform in the Middle East and North Africa, the companies said Wednesday.
Major investor Prosus has written off the worth of its 9.6% stake in edtech firm Byju’s to zero, signaling a loss of confidence in the once-most valued Indian startup.
Zepto has raised a massive $665 million in a new round of funding, more than doubling its valuation to $3.6 billion from $1.4 billion in less than a year, as the Mumbai-based startup doubles down on its efforts to capture the contested quick commerce market in India.
Oyo, the Indian budget-hotel chain startup, is finalizing a fresh fundraise of about $100 million to $125 million that slashes its valuation to $2.5 billion, two people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
That’s a steep decline in the Gurgaon-headquartered startup’s value, which was worth $10 billion in 2019. The startup, struggling to raise from institutional investors, has been aggressively pitching high-net-worth individuals in recent months.
“We genuinely feel that this asset makes a lot of sense today. Being profitable and @70% discount to the previous valuation. Listing expected in 18-24 months,” a representative of InCred, a financial firm working with Oyo, pitched in a message (seen by TechCrunch) to a startup founder.
TechCrunch reported early last month that Oyo was seeking to raise funds at a $3 billion valuation or lower. At the time, Oyo vehemently denied the “rumors, including that of the valuation.” The new round is likely to grow bigger in size, said the aforementioned sources, who requested anonymity as the matter isn’t public.
The new funding follows Oyo shelving its plan for an IPO last month. The startup — which counts SoftBank, Peak XV Ventures, Lightspeed, Airbnb and Microsoft among its backers — has withdrawn its IPO application from the Indian markets regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India, twice in the last four years.
Oyo had initially filed paperwork with SEBI in 2021 for a public listing but withdrew it and refiled in 2023. The firm, which has raised over $3 billion to date, sought to raise $1.2 billion at a valuation of $12 billion in the IPO in 2021.
Once one of the hottest Indian startups, Oyo operates an OS of sorts to help hoteliers accept digital bookings and payments. The startup was once operational in dozens of markets, including the U.S. and Europe, but has since curbed its international play.
It observed a net profit of $12 million in the financial year ending March, according to founder and chief executive Ritesh Agarwal.
Agarwal in 2019 took a $2 billion debt to increase his stake in Oyo, valued at $10 billion at the time. He invested $700 million as primary capital in Oyo and spent $1.3 billion on a secondary purchase of Oyo shares. The startup has not commented on the status of that debt since.
Indian newspaper Economic Times also reported about the new funding on Monday, adding that the startup will seek approval from existing shareholders for the funding this week.
Byju’s is having a hard time raising the full $200 million from its rights issues that its founder had previously claimed was oversubscribed, sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. And now, India’s National Company Law Tribunal has restrained the company from proceeding with its second rights issue amid allegations of oppression and mismanagement by its shareholders.
In a research note, HSBC estimates that the Indian edtech giant Byju’s, once valued at $22 billion, is now worth nothing. The write-down in its estimation makes Byju’s one of the most spectacular startup slides in recent memory.