New Delhi/IBNS: Oravel Stays, the parent company of the global travel and hospitality firm Oyo, is reportedly in discussions to raise $200 million through a primary funding round, according to a report by Business Standard.

The company is aiming for a valuation between $4.5 billion and $5 billion, significantly higher than its previous valuation of $2.4 billion, though still below the $10 billion it once sought.

The funds are expected to support Oyo’s potential acquisition of G6 Hospitality, which owns the budget-friendly Motel 6 chain in the US The company is in talks with offshore institutional investors and private Indian investors to secure the funding, as reported by Business Standard.

However, India Blooms has not independently confirmed these details.

Among the private investors engaged in the discussions are InCred Wealth, J&A Partners, the Mankind Pharma family office, and ASK Financial Holdings, all of whom previously valued Oyo at $2.4 billion.

Oyo, backed by Softbank, has not provided any comments on the matter, according to the Business Standard report.

In August, the company raised Rs 1,457 crore from a group of investors.

As an IPO-bound unicorn, Oyo also secured close to Rs 1,040 crore in a Series G funding round, following an earlier raise of Rs 416.85 crore in the same series.

Documents obtained by news agency PTI show that Oyo’s shareholders overwhelmingly approved an additional equity issuance, with 99.99 percent voting in favour during an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Aug. 8.

In a significant financial turnaround, Oyo posted its first-ever profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 229 crore for FY24, a sharp recovery from the Rs 1,286 crore loss it reported the previous year.

This improvement was driven by strict cost-cutting measures and a Rs 453-crore gain from exceptional items, including a Rs 240-crore fair value increase from the acquisition of Oyo Hotels Cayman and a Rs 249-crore reversal of financial liabilities.

Oyo's profit follows eight straight quarters of positive Adjusted EBITDA, which surged 215 percent to Rs 877 crore in FY24, up from Rs 277 crore the year prior. Additionally, the company’s inventory expanded from 12,938 properties in FY23 to 18,103 in FY24.