IPO-bound Oyo on Saturday announced it will lay off 10 per cent of its 3,700-employee base and lay off 600 people as part of a ‘comprehensive’ change in its organizational structure, while hiring 250 members. Will do
The homegrown hospitality chain startup said in a statement: “It is downsizing its product and engineering, corporate headquarters and OYO Vacation Homes teams, while it adds people in partner relationship management and business development teams.”
Talking about the restructuring, OYO Founder and Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal said, “We will make every effort to ensure that most of the people we are letting go are gainfully employed. Every member of the OYO team and myself will actively leverage the strengths of each of these employees.”
The SoftBank-backed hospitality firm said it will help as many employees as they can relocate and continue their medical insurance coverage for an average of three months.
“It is unfortunate that we are having to part ways with so many talented individuals who have made valuable contributions to the company. As OYO grows and the need for some of these roles emerges in the future, we want to reach out to them first and give them opportunities are committed to provide,” said Agarwal.
Moreover, this is the second layoff by OYO in the last two years. In December 2020, the hospitality startup laid off 300 employees. These layoffs were part of the company’s strategy to build a sustainable business over the long term.
In addition to the layoffs, the SoftBank-backed hospitality chain also plans to hire 250 new members. Ritesh Agarwal, who founded the startup, also said that its product and engineering teams are being merged for smooth functioning.
The company further said that downsizing in tech is also taking place in teams that were developing pilots and proof of concepts such as in-app gaming, social content curation, and patron-facilitated content.
In addition, members of projects – which have now been successfully developed and deployed such as ‘Partner SaaS’ – are either being let go or redeployed in core product and technology areas such as AI-driven pricing, ordering and payments. being done. ,
Stating the need for new hiring, the company said it will add 250 members to its relationship management teams to ensure better consumer and partner satisfaction, and business development teams to help grow the number of hotels and homes on its platform. ,
OYO, as a part of the integration of various functions of its European vacation home business, is making progress, reducing parts of the business to increase efficiency and harness synergies, the statement said. The startup has also re-evaluated its corporate headquarters base and is aligning congruent roles and team structures.
Recently, OYO reported a net loss of Rs 333 crore in Q2 FY23, down from Rs 414 crore in Q1 FY23. The IPO-linked company also disclosed in its addendum that revenue grew 24 per cent to Rs 2,905 crore in H1FY23.
OYO reported a 69 per cent growth in its gross booking values (GBV). GBV is the monthly revenue that the company earns per hotel. Despite the reduction in losses, some of the company’s core expenses continued to rise as per the results. Its marketing and promotional expenditure grew by 19 per cent in H1FY23 from Rs 336 crore in H1FY22 to Rs 400 crore.
Currently, OYO operates through 157,000 hotels and storefronts across 35 countries in India, Europe and South East Asia.
In October 2021, OYO filed preliminary documents with SEBI to raise Rs 8,430 crore through initial share sale. So far, it has not launched an IPO citing the volatile nature of the market.
