Technology

OYO, the India-based startup that operates a network of budget hotels, has pulled in $1 billion in new funding to grow its business in China and expand into other international markets.

The majority of the funding— $800 million, tobe exact — was led bySoftBank Vision Fund with participation from Lightspeed, Sequoia and Greenoaks Capital. OYO said there is also an additional $200 million that has been committed from as-yet-unnamed investors. The dealvalues the five-year-old company at $5 billion.

Before today, OYO had raised $450 million from investors. Its previous financing wasa $250 million round last September which was led by the Vision Fund and includeda $10 million follow-on investment from China Lodging.

OYO was started in May 2013 by Thiel FellowRitesh Agarwal, who was then aged 19. The company aggregates budget hotels and hostels in India, ensuring that they include minimum standards such as clean sheets, hot showers and free WiFi. It has since branched out into other kinds of lodgings, and verticals that include wedding planning.

Today, OYO claims to have over10,000 franchised or leased hotels in its network, which it says spans 350 cities across five countries.The company announced an expansion beyond India into China this summerand it is also present Nepal and Malaysia. More recently, itrecently entered the UK market this month.

Its plan forChina — which OYO interestingly today said is a dual &home market& alongside India — is particularly ambitious, but already the company claims to have reached 87,000 rooms in 171 cities.

China will account for $800 million of this newly-raised capital, OYO said. The remainder will be deployed to bolster its presence in India and supporting growth in its other overseas markets as well moving into other new territories. OYO isn&t saying right now what other overseas expansion plans it has up its sleeve.

&We will continue to explore newer businesses while remaining focused on both organic and inorganic growth. In the last 12 months, we have increased our international footprint to five countries… With this additional funding, we plan to rapidly scale our business in these countries, while continuing to invest further in technology and talent. We will also deploy fresh capital to take our unique model that enables small hotel owners to create quality living spaces, global,& Agarwal, the OYO CEO, said in a statement.

If you&ve even vaguely considered applying to be a TechCrunch Top Pick at Disrupt Berlin 2018, which takes place on 29-30 November,you need to act now. The application window closes on Friday 28 September, so get moving and apply to be a TC Top Pick today.

Why would you want to be selected as a TC Top Pick Let us count the reasons. First, only the most exceptional startups earn the Top Pick designation. Ita highly curated process, and our editors are an extremely picky bunch. Second, allTC Top Picks receive a FREEStartup Alley Exhibitor Package.

Thatright, you get to exhibit for free in Startup Alley, where hundreds of early-stage startups showcase their tech talent, products, platforms and services to thousands of attendees and network with the brightest innovators in Europe. This bears repeating: for free. As in zero Euros. Such a deal — and we&re not the only ones who say that.

Exhibiting in Startup Alley puts your company smack-dab in front of the very influencers you want to attract, including investors. Luke Heron, CEO of TestCard, noted, &TechCrunch uses a curation process regarding the companies it accepts, so exhibiting in Startup Alley at Disrupt — among all these other fantastic startups — has a hugely positive impact when you&re fundraising.&

Hespeaking from experience. Heron recently shared with us that TestCard &just closed $1.7 million in funding (which is thanks to you and your team — bless you!) You guys are fantastic — the lifeblood of the startup scene.&

Want more validation We got you.

In addition to the freeStartup Alley Exhibitor Package, TC Top Picks also receive a three-minute interview with a TechCrunch editor on the Showcase Stage, which we promote across our social media platforms. As Vlad Larin, co-founder of Zeroqode said, being on the receiving end of that kind of media exposure can have long-term benefits.

&The Showcase Stage interview was a wonderful experience. The publicity we received brought a lot of people back to our website. We had a huge spike in traffic, and we&re still feeling the positive business effects of that interview.&

If you want to be considered for a TC Top Pick designation, your early-stage startup must fall into one of the following tech categories:

• AI/Machine Learning
• Blockchain
• CRM/Enterprise
• E-commerce
• Education
• Fintech
• Healthtech/Biotech
• Hardware, Robotics, IoT
• Mobility
• Gaming

TechCrunch editors will review and vet each qualified application thoroughly, and they&ll choose up to five startups to represent each category.

The Startup Alley Exhibitor Package includes a one-day exhibit space, three Disrupt Berlin Founder passes, access to CrunchMatch (our free investor-to-startup matching platform) and access to the Disrupt press list.

Disrupt Berlin 2018takes place on 29-30 November, and the deadline toapply to be a TC Top Pickis 28 September. You&ll have the networking opportunity of a lifetime — at zero cost — and it could take your business to the next level. So, what are you waiting for

Picfair, the photo marketplace that competes with Getty and Shutterstock by giving photographers a fairer deal, is adding a major update to its offering today. The London-based startup is launching Picfair Stores, giving the 35,000 photographers on its marketplace the ability to create their own free independent online store. Customers who buy from a Picfair Store can choose a licensed digital copy or a physical print.

&We&re moving beyond being just a new generation stock image marketplace,& Picfair founder Benji Lanyado, who used to be a journalist at The Guardian, tells me. &With stores, and prints, and more… we&re becoming a fully featured commercial ecosystem for photographers. At the heart of it all: the principle that anyone should be able to make money from their images, simply and fairly&.

In addition, every image on a photographerindividual Picfair Store will also be available simultaneously on Picfairmarketplace, which Lanyado likens to &thousands of local image stores across the globe, with a central Amazon-style megastore they all feed in to&.

He reckons it is the first time anyone has combined a marketplace with the added control of website builders, such as Wix or Squarespace, and the on-demand print functionality of Smugmug or Zenfolio, all built with amateur photographers in mind (although the line between amateur and professional is becoming increasingly blurred).

&Picfair is uniting all of this. The control of a website builder. The commercial structures of an e-commerce platform. The exposure of a marketplace, with added price control and fair royalty splits,& Lanyado says.

Less tech-driven but perhaps equally significant, Picfair has recently launched a photo agency unit, building on top of its bread and butter business of selling image licenses to editorial and marketing companies. It came about slightly accidentally, says Lanyado, after brands and creative agencies started approaching the company asking if it could help them find photographers across the globe.

&Initially we just introduced the photographers to the clients directly, like idiots,& he tells me. &Then we started acting like non-idiots and offered our services as a photographer-finder agency, with a very handy black book of 35,000 photographers around the world. We&ve already worked with Google, VisitBritain, Ogilvy and a few other big brands too. The cool bit: all of our leads have come from our community. Most of our photographers aren&t professionals, and their jobs cover the creative gamut: production people in creative agencies, marketing folk etc. The marketplace is generating leads for the agency!&.

Meanwhile, Picfair has just closed a $540,000 equity crowdfunding round. This saw many of its photographers take part, meaning that the company is now part photographer-owned. It adds to a £1.5 million seed round raised a year ago.