SoftBank Group-backed Oravel Travels, which operates franchise-based hotels under the OYO Rooms brand, posted a 33% decline in losses to Rs 330.9 crore for the year ended March 2017, according to filings with Registrar of Companies (RoC) and data platform Tofler. In FY16, the company had posted losses of Rs 496.3 crore. Revenues from operations increased four-fold to Rs 87.2 crore in FY17 from Rs 17.5 core in FY16. OYO Rooms’ total revenues rose two-fold to Rs 102.19 crore in the previous fiscal from Rs 32.8 crore a year ago. Even as employee benefit costs, including salaries and wages paid by the firm, rose 60.9% to Rs 194.3 crore in FY17 from Rs 120.7 crore in FY16, OYO Rooms reduced its overall expenses by 16.7% to Rs 433.16 crore, as against Rs 520.32 crore a year earlier. Early this week, in an exclusive interview to PTI, Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of OYO Rooms, said the company had narrowed losses by 27% to Rs 363.7 crore in 2016-17, mainly on account of a high degree of operating leverage in the business model. The company’s losses stood at Rs 496.8 crore during FY16, OYO said in a press release. OYO witnessed seven times revenue growth at Rs 125 crore in FY17, compared with Rs 17 crore during 2015-16. “The year 2017 has been a watershed for us. We steered our growth trajectory by upgrading and bringing beautiful living spaces in the value economy segment through OYO Rooms, while launching our operated brand Townhouse,” Agarwal told PTI. In September this year, OYO Rooms raised $250 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund. New investor Hero Enterprise also participated in the round. SoftBank had earlier invested around $120 million in the company across two rounds in 2015 and 2016. OYO Rooms has so far raised about $436 million across four rounds.