According to Indian business news site Mint, global hospitality giant Accor is in talks to invest up to $50 million in Treebo Hotels, an Indian tech-centric budget hospitality company.
The Paris-based company is looking to pick up a "significant minority stake" in the brand, and talks are at an "advanced stage," an anonymous source told the news site. Should the deal go through, it would give Accor the right to acquire a majority stake in Treebo at a later date, according to the report.
Treebo Hotels was founded in March 2015 by Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee alumni Rahul Chaudhary, Sidharth Gupta and Kadam Jeet Jain. The company secured $34 million in a Series C round of funding from Hong Kong-based investment firms Ward Ferry Management and Karst Peak Capital in Q3 2017. SAIF Partners, Matrix Partners India and Bertelsmann India also participated in the round. Bertelsmann India Investments also invested $17 million into Treebo in June 2016.
Last year, Treebo Hotels launched three sub-brands for different price points: Trip is the least expensive, Trend is midrange and Tryst is Treebo's top offering.
Treebo reportedly has raised more than $55 million since launching, and Accor's funds are expected to "scale up" the hotel chain’s network.