OYO CEO Ritesh Agarwal, top executives to make startup bets via Raaga Partners

India's fast-growing startup eco-system is enabling entrepreneurs to turn angel investors. And they have been setting up separate entities to invest in select startups.

On the similar lines, India fast-growing hospitality business OYO has named separate investment entity Raaga Partners LLP, for making seed investment in startups. 

The entity names top OYO executives Anuj Tejpal, OYO’s business development head, Abhinav Sinha, chief operating officer, and Ayush Mathur, chief supply officer as partners in the entity. 

Whereas Abhishek Gupta, a chief financial officer at OYO, and CEO Ritesh Agarwal are named as designated partners, as per an ET report which cited paper.vc note on the development. 

Every individual partner will be contributing to the fund in their personal capacity. The details related to numbers of startups they plan to invest in and the size of the fund is still unknown. As per sources, through the investment vehicle, the top brass of OYO aims to support technology startups, which are solving real problems in the ecosystem.

As per legal definition, both partner and designated partners will have separate responsibility.

While the ‘partner’ will be limited solely to the LLP agreement and acts or omission by the partner himself, the ‘designated partners’ will be accountable for the liabilities prescribed by the LLP agreement as well as for all penalties imposed on ‘limited liability partners’ for contravention of any provisions applicable and to be complied with by the LLP, added the report.

Last year in November, Agarwal had transferred his holding of 155 shares in Shuttl to Raaga Partners.

"This is a great opportunity for me to learn and in the process contribute towards creating a strong startup ecosystem in India, where we all work towards common goals," said Agarwal in a statement.

In a recent $1.5 billion fundraising round led by Softbank valued the Gurugram-based firm at $10 billion. Meanwhile, the hotel chain continues to face allegations of misconducts for its policy from hotel partners in India and the US.

OYO is not the first startup to set up a separate entity for investment purpose.

Flipkart, Snapdeal and Freecharge co-founders have all set up separate entities for managing their startup funding portfolio. Co-founders of both Flipkart and Freecharge had created Sabin Advisors and Whiteboard Capital, respectively.

Earlier, last month e-commerce firm Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, who also have been active angel investors in the Indian startup eco-system, had set up investment fund called Titan Capital. The cap-table of the portfolio companies will now have the name of Titan Capital instead of the names of Snapdeal co-founders.

So far, it claims to have made investments in over 70 startups.

Update: The post has been updated after getting confirmation and response from OYO.