People familiar with the company and situation reveals that Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, is in talks to lead a $400 million funding round in Oyo Hotels & Homes before its expected IPO.

The hotel-booking company from India , which has the support of Softbank Group Corp., wants to get more influx to grow its business and pay off its debts. This is what some sources said, who did not want to reveal their names because the information is confidential. The company is getting help from Avendus Capital Pvt. Ltd. to raise the money , they added.

The company, which was started by Ritesh Agarwal and one of the pioneers in the segment, applied for an initial public offering again in March. It did this after cutting down the amount of money it wanted to raise by almost 67%, according to Bloomberg. The travel market is better now than it was during the pandemic, but Oyo — which was worth about $10 billion and is like India's Airbnb — has not chosen a date for the IPO yet.

The sources say that the discussions are not over yet and Khazanah may still change its mind and not put money in. Oyo is also talking to other investors to get more money, they said. Oyo had a net loss of 13 billion rupees ($156 million) in the year that ended in March 2023.

Khazanah has been increasing its money in India with companies that do banking, such as Xpressbees, which delivers things, and Wow! Momos, which sells food.