Oyo Buys Danish Data Science Company, Danamica for $10 Million

Indian hospitality company, Oyo Rooms has become a renowned hospitality brand in the industry. The company has gained recognition because of two factors: firstly, its disruptive idea and secondly, a peculiarity in hospitality services from training staff to upgrading linen, bathroom fittings. Apart from expanding its business in India, Ritesh Agarwal-led business has forayed in other countries viz. Britain, UK, Indonesia, US, China, Malaysia, and Nepal. 

Recently, Oyo has purchased a Denmark-headquartered data science company, Danamica. The acquisition was made by Oyo to increase its footprint in Europe, according to a media report. 

The Indian hospitality company has paid nearly $10 million to acquire Danamica, TechCrunch reported citing an anonymous source. 

How Joining Hands with Danamica Will Help Grow Oyo

Danamica offers machine learning solutions to its clients, which in turn, gives different prices of rental estates. The Indian startup firm believes that the Danish company would aid in enhancing its technical expertise as it increases its business in the overseas market.  

“Danamica, which was founded in 2016, has built machine learning tools and “business intelligence capabilities” to specialize in dynamic pricing of rental properties. The firm’s algorithm analyzes 144,000 data points every hour and makes 60 million price changes every day with a prediction accuracy of 97 per cent to help hotels boost their revenue, TechCrunch reported citing Oyo’s statement. 

The six-year-old Indian startup proclaims to have made its presence in 80 nations. The company has become one of the largest hotel chains in the country and alongside, aggressively expanding its footprint in other nations. According to the cited media report, the hospitality firm has nearly half of its one million rooms in the neighboring country, China where it forayed last year.    

Oyo’s Investment in Other Spheres 

The acquisition of Danish company has come weeks after Oyo said that it decided to infuse €300 million in its vacation rental business in Europe and $300 million for business expansion in the US in the offing, according to a media report. 

In May 2019, the Indian hospitality business had purchased Amsterdam-headquartered rental firm, Leisure for $415 million.   

“We are delighted to announce our acquisition of Danamica, a Europe based, machine learning and business intelligence company specialized in dynamic pricing, that will help us be more accurate with pricing, leading to higher efficiencies and yield for our real estate owners and value for money for our millions of global guests, both everyday travelers and city dwellers, that choose an OYO Vacation Homes as their abode,” Global Head of OYO Vacation and Urban Homes and CSO of OYO Hotels & Homes, Maninder Gulati said in a prepared statement.

In July 2019, the Indian rental company forayed in the co-working segment by incorporating Oyo Workspaces. In a media conference in New Delhi, the company executives told that they want to make Oyo Workspaces the biggest business in this category in Asia by the end of the following year, according to a cited media report. 

To consolidate its place in the co-working space, Oyo bought the co-working startup, Innov8.

In the same month, founder of Oyo, Ritesh Aggarwal infused $2 billion in the business to increment his stakeholding as an early investment company, Sequoia and Lightspeed exited. Following this, Oyo was valued at $10 billion.

Oyo is progressively working on its strategy and is not sticking on the same sphere but trying its hand in other businesses as well as overseas countries.