Oyo India CEO Ankit Gupta and Europe head Mandar Vaidya Resign

In the lead-up to its forthcoming public listing, Oyo has witnessed the departure of key executives, including its India CEO, Ankit Gupta, and Europe head, Mandar Vaidya. This recent wave of exits adds to the growing list of high-level departures from the hospitality and travel tech startup over the past year.

Back in June, Oyo’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Ankit Mathuria, stepped down from his position. Prior to this, the company had already undergone significant reshuffling of its top leadership team, with several executives taking on expanded roles internally.

Ankit Gupta, who served as Oyo India’s CEO, had joined the unicorn in 2019 and had been in his role for just a year before his departure. Before overseeing Oyo’s operations in India, Ankit Gupta held the position of CEO for another company’s Franchise and Frontier business. Meanwhile, Mandar Vaidya, who was responsible for Oyo’s Europe operations, had also joined the company in 2019, previously serving as the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) for Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

The company, under the leadership of Ritesh Agarwal, initially filed for a public listing in October 2021, with ambitions to raise approximately $1.6 billion at a valuation of $12 billion. However, these plans were later postponed, and the target was scaled down to $600 million with a new listing date set for November.

In February of the same year, Oyo underwent another round of restructuring among its top executives, assigning many of them additional internal responsibilities. Notable figures such as the former COO and Head of Product, Abhinav Sinham, the former Global Chief Merchant Officer, Anuj Tejpal, and the Chief Service Officer, Shreerang Godbole, were among those asked to shoulder these additional roles.

Established in 2015, Oyo experienced a significant turning point when its valuation surged to $10 billion in June 2019. This increase came after Oyo repurchased its own shares from Sequoia and Lightspeed Venture Partners, leading to CEO Ritesh Agarwal’s ownership stake in the company rising to 33%. In September 2021, Oyo secured a $5 million investment in a funding round from Microsoft.

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