Lead Story

Spreading cash like manure

Start-ups are on steroids due to the deluge of cheap capital. Is it too much, too soon?

By the end of September, Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of OYO Rooms, has zipped through six different cities in less than a week’s time. All of 21 years of age, Agarwal wants to build the world’s largest budget hotel room aggregator and some of the biggest names in the venture world are backing his audacious dream. In January 2014, Agarwal raised ₹4 crore — his first round of capital — from Lightspeed Venture Partners. He raised a second round of $25 million from Sequoia Capital, Greenoaks Capital and Lightspeed in April 2015.