India’s homegrown startup for affordable living spaces, OYO rooms has shifted its gears, on Friday the company announced commencement of their services in Japanese markets in collaboration with web services company Yahoo to form OYO Technology and Hospitality Japan. Hiro Katsue a well known Japanese entrepreneur famed for Bookings.com has been appointed as the CEO of OYO’s Japan unit. Earlier this week OYO has also kicked in their operations in their first middle eastern country, Saudi Arabia.
With this new enterprise, Ritesh Agarwal will be bringing his OYO to Japan after successfully operating in countries like India, Nepal, China, Singapore, England, Malaysia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka.
#HelloJapan!
Our mission of providing the perfect space in every place has now reached Japan. We’re elated to launch with #OYO Life. Let’s change the face of hospitality, together! pic.twitter.com/TGvAbgDWsJ— OYO (@oyorooms) February 22, 2019
“This new entity will be focused on creating unique living experiences for the Japanese citizens, students, and young professionals, looking for good quality affordable accommodations, starting with our fully managed homes brand – OYO LIFE,” said Ritesh Agarwal, CEO and founder, OYO Hotels and Homes.
Alone in Japan, rental stays industry is worth of 12 trillion yen which will undoubtedly be the largest market OYO have ever operated, even bigger than India. Japan happens to be the home turf for OYO since its biggest investor, Softbank is a Japanese firm.
“With the launch of OYO LIFE, we are all set to leverage OYO’s hospitality experience to offer a first of its kind, end to end fully managed housing experience. I look forward to leveraging our partnership with Yahoo! Japan and OYO’s expertise from across the world to scale OYO LIFE, a product built in Japan for Japanese customers. We are delighted to have Yahoo! Japan’s support as we bring OYO LIFE to Japan, with pre-registration now available for stays starting March,” added, Hiro Katsuse, newly appointed CEO of OYO Technology & Hospitality Company, Japan.
According to Crunchbase, Since its inception OYO has raised a total of $1.7B funds in 11 rounds. Last year OYO had raised $100 million from Star Virtue Investment, parent company of Didi-Chuxing, a Chinese Cab-hailing firm.
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