India’s Oyo said on Monday it has acquired Copenhagen-based data science firm Danamica as the fast-growing lodging startup works to expand its business in Europe.
Neither of the parties disclosed financial terms of the deal, but a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Oyo paid about $10 million to acquire the Danish firm.
Danamica, which was founded in 2016, has built machine learning tools and “business intelligence capabilities” to specialize in dynamic pricing of rental properties and hotels. The firm’s algorithm analyzes 144,000 data points every hour and makes 60 million price changes every day with a prediction accuracy of 97% to help hotels boost their revenue, Oyo said. The Indian startup said Danamica would help it scale its technical expertise as it expands its footprint in overseas markets.
Oyo, which has established itself as the largest hotel chain in India, is rapidly expanding in other countries. The startup said it has presence in 80 countries. About half of its 1 million rooms are in China, where it launched two years ago.
Today’s announcement comes weeks after Oyo said it planned to invest €300 million in its vacation rental business in Europe, and $300 million toward U.S. expansion over the coming years. In May this year, Oyo bought Amsterdam-based holiday rental company Leisure from Axel Springer for $415 million.
In a prepared statement, Maninder Gulati, Global Head of OYO Vacation and Urban Homes and Chief Strategy Officer of OYO Hotels & Homes, said, “We are delighted to announce our acquisition of Danamica, a Europe based, machine learning and business intelligence company specialized in dynamic pricing, that will help us be more accurate with pricing, leading to higher efficiencies and yield for our real estate owners and value for money for our millions of global guests, both everyday travellers and city dwellers, that choose an OYO Vacation Homes as their abode.”
Source: TechCrunch
