After Drivezy, Oyo launches ICO Oyo Smart Coin (OSC)

Update: It was a well-coordinated effort by Oyo to fool people on April Fool's Day. Oyo launching Oyo Smart Coin (OSC) is not true. The company has no such plans.

Budget hotel accommodation brand Oyo has launched its initial coin offering (ICO) - Oyo Smart Coin (OSC). OSC will benefit the hotel partners as well as consumers through discounting. While consumers will be able to avail Oyo hotels with reduced prices, it will enable hotel partners to directly transfer benefits to the consumers.

With every 100 hotels added to the Oyo brand, the value of OSC will likely to go up by 4 per cent. This essentially means that the value of OSC is projected to grow by 20 per cent on a monthly basis. The value of OSC will also increase with every transaction made by consumers through OSC.

The news you all have been waiting for, announcing the token sale of #OSC, OYO SMART Coin. A cryptocurrency that will transform the travel and hospitality industry and mark the beginning of the blockchain revolution in India. Read more here: https://t.co/isu1n7ZpR0 pic.twitter.com/lYzzLNWtUv

— OYO (@oyorooms) March 29, 2018

The initial coin offering price of OSC (link) is priced at Rs 999.

Before Oyo, car rental startup Drivezy had launched ICO that primarily offered rental coins 1.O that can be used for renting a car or receive payouts each time a car is rented out by others. Last October Drivezy had raised a targeted $5 million via an ICO in Japan with support from its investor AnyPay.

Notably, Drivezy plans to raise $15 million via a second ICO in January, and another $100 million through a third in April this year.

For uninitiated, an ICO is similar to an IPO and is the means through which new cryptocurrency ventures raise funding. Unlike IPO, ICOs are unregulated and are often evangelised to bypass the stringent norms of raising money from institutional investors including banks.

Other startups that have been raising capital via ICOs include Bengaluru-based WandX, Nucleus Vision, Cashaa, and BitIndia.

The token creation, sale, and distribution are being managed by the same team that has built pricing and data sciences at Oyo, mentions a company blogpost.