OYO, India’s largest branded network of hotels announced a strategic partnership with ItzCash, India’s pioneer and the largest player in the digital payments space, to tap the next 500 million underserved Indian consumer segment. The tie-up will facilitate effortless payments for hotel-bookings across 5500 hotels in over 170 cities in India through ItzCash’s easy money transfer solutions. With this partnership ItzCash is going aggressive in hotel booking and aims to double its volume and clock Rs. 400 crore by FY18. ItzCash is backed by Lightspeed Ventures, which is also an investor in OYO.
The partnership will help OYO tap potential consumers who do not have access to either a debit or a credit card. ItzCash is already a dominant player in travel segment, and will offer access to OYO via an online co-branded portal as well as offline outlets. Both partners also have existing synergies such as deep integration with IRCTC. ItzCash offers travel booking service through its strong network of 75,000 plus pan-India network of retail touch points
Elaborating on the partnership, Ritesh Agarwal, CEO & Founder, OYO said, “Our journey towards becoming India’s most loved hotel brand has been driven primarily by customers who engaged with us online or through their mobile devices. The partnership with ItzCash will enable us to reach the large traveller-base that transacts through offline channels. ItzCash is a trusted partner for these customers and this long-standing association will undoubtedly help them build preference and familiarity with OYO”
Speaking about this new partnership Naveen Surya, Managing Director – ItzCash said, ‘’With this integration, we aim to further strengthen ItzCash’s foothold on the digital stage. While we already dominate Rail bookings; our focus in air and hotel bookings will drive the incremental growth in the next two fiscal for ItzCash. We aim to address the problem faced by a large section of society who is unaware of doing advance hotel booking at an affordable rate. Travel & Hotel bookings account for 12 – 15 % of ItzCash business and with this association it’s going to be the fastest growing sector for us. It is expected to grow at 60% year-on-year.’’.
With its disruptive business model, OYO is the pioneer of standardized hotel segment, bringing in predictability, affordability and accessibility to the hospitality sector. It is also one of the very few start-ups that have played a significant role in the sharing economy revolution in the Indian ecosystem through a range of tie-ups that enable convenience, standardization and choice.
About OYO
OYO is India’s largest branded network of hotels founded by Ritesh Agarwal, India’s first graduate of the Thiel Fellowship, a program started by Paypal founder, Peter Thiel. OYO currently operates in more than 170 Indian cities including Delhi, Gurgaon,Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Goa, Chennai and Kolkata. These include major metros, regional hubs, top leisure destinations, as well as pilgrimage towns. OYO has also recently launched operations in Malaysia. The company’s vision is to become the most preferred and trusted hotel brand. It is backed by the world’s leading investor including the SoftBank Group, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed India.
About ItzCash
ItzCash Card Ltd., India’s only “Multi Service Payment Solutions Company” and part of the Essel Group, was established in 2006. A pioneer in the prepaid payment sector in India, ItzCash initiated the concept of ‘digital cash’ to the Indian consumer and various business entities, heralding the beginning towards enabling a cashless transacting society. ItzCash continues to build on its innovation augmenting its product portfolio offering wide choice of payments and money transfer services.
It has many pioneering products under it’s belt from country’s first sms based payments way back in 2006 to India’s first bank partnered open loop prepaid program with access to online and offline retailers & ATM. It constantly invests in upgrading technology towards creating world‐class omni-channel payments platforms for the emerging India. ItzCash has presence across consumer segments and over 75,000 franchisees branded as “ItzCash World” in 3000+ Tier I and II cities and towns. It is backed by world’s leading investors Matrix Partners, Lightspeed Venture and Intel Capital.
Source: www.newsvoir.com
Image Courtesy: financialexpress
