In brief: Oyo Rooms said to book up to $500m from Tencent

Photo credit: Oyo Rooms

Tencent rumored to invest up to US$500 million in Oyo Rooms (India/China). The capital injection from the Chinese tech giant would take Oyo Rooms’ valuation over US$2 billion. Budget-hotel brand and booking platform Oyo has raised about US$400 million to date from investors including Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and SoftBank. The latter is the company’s largest shareholder, owning a 42 percent stake. Oyo expanded into the Chinese hotel market earlier this year, adding seven properties in Shenzhen to its site. (The International Business Times)

Other news

Awfis nets US$20 million funding (India). The shared workspace provider will use the money to pursue its goal of offering 40,000 seats across 90 venues in the next year. Sequoia Capital, TTS:IO, and Temasek affiliate InnoVen Capital invested in the series C round. (The Economic Times)

Line acquires game developer NextFloor (Japan/South Korea). The messaging app has purchased a majority stake in the South Korean startup. NextFloor will be combined with Line’s existing games publishing operations to form a new unit called Line Games. (VentureBeat)

Hmlet agrees to buy We R Urban (Singapore/Hong Kong). The co-living space provider said the proposed deal will help it to double its presence in Hong Kong, which currently serves 70 members in 30 co-living spaces. (DealStreetAsia)

See: Previous Asian tech news