Ritesh Agarwal: Success Story, biography & Net Worth Of OYO Founder

Ritesh Agarwal Biography
by SA TeamPosted on
Posted in BusinessTechnology
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Three points you will get to know in this article:

1) The early life of Ritesh Agarwal & his background
2) The success story of Oyo
3) Net worth & investments of the OYO founder

The Success Story of Ritesh Agarwal

In the hospitality sector, Oyo Rooms founder Ritesh Agarwal is known for setting records. Early on, he rethought how low-cost travelers may have standardized and reasonably priced stays. It is remarkable how he went from a small town to become the youngest billionaire in India at the age of 29. With a net worth of more than ₹16,000 crores, Ritesh Agarwal’s story demonstrates the strength of creativity, tenacity, and a tenacious spirit of entrepreneurship.

Ritesh Agarwal – Biography

Ritesh Agarwal Early Life and Education

On November 16, 1993, Ritesh Agarwal was born into a Marwari family. He was raised at Titilagarh after being born in Bissam Cuttack, Odisha. In Rayagada, his family owned a little store. Before relocating to Delhi for college in 2011, he completed his education at Sacred Heart School and then St. Johns Senior Secondary School.

Ritesh Agarwal Net Worth and Investments

Ritesh  Agarwal’s  net worth is about Rs 16000 crore. Over the last four years, the company has grown at a 100 percent rate. Ritesh Agarwal has made 27 rounds of investments. On March 30, 2024, they made their most recent investment in First Bud Organics (Angel Round).

• Among the noteworthy businesses in their investment portfolio are Zingbus, Cars24, and Unacademy.
• Consumer and enterprise applications, along with 17 other sectors, are the main areas in which they invest.
• Companies in Singapore, India, and one other country are part of their investment portfolio.

Sr. No

 Company Sector Round Round Amount Co-Investors
1  

First Bud Organics

 Food and Agriculture  Angel $60K –
2  

Allter

 Retail  Angel $120K Aman Gupta
3  

Coratia

 Environment Tech  Angel $96K –
4  

XMACHINES

 High Tech  Seed $86.1K Namita Thapa

Ritesh Agarwal Family

Ritesh Agarwal Family

OYO creator Ritesh Agarwal is married to Geetansha Sood on March 7, 2023  and the two of them have a son, Aryan, born in December 2023. Sharing the news about the newest member of the family, Ritesh Aggarwal said, “Our hearts are forever changed. Meet our precious little one – Aryan.” “The sleepless nights spent building OYO were just a warm-up for the sleepless nights of parenthood, and yet, I’ve never been happier than I am at this very moment!

Here’s to us, my incredible wife Geet, the bundle of joy Aryan, and to the new chapter we’re writing together – filled with love, laughter, and the indescribable happiness that only a little one can bring,” he wrote on X

The couple had announced their pregnancy a month ago on social media post with another heartfelt note. In his post, the Oyo founder shared his love story that began eleven years ago as a teenager. 

Entrepreneurial Journey- OYO Rooms

Entrepreneurial Journey- OYO Rooms
• Ritesh Agarwal established OYO Rooms in 2013. Ritesh founded OYO as a website for booking inexpensive lodging when he was 19 years old, with an initial sum of Rupees 82 lakh. In Gurgaon, India, the company started off with just five hotels.
• OYO grew quickly over the years and became one of the biggest hotel chains in the world. OYO provides a large selection of mid-range and reasonably priced lodging options. Agarwal became the youngest self-made millionaire in India in 2018 when the company he founded received USD 1 billion in funding.
• After this accomplishment, he became known as the second self-made millionaire in the world, behind Kylie Jenner.

How Ritesh Agarwal Started OYO

• Ritesh decided to leave college to follow his idea since he had a strong passion for creativity. He started his business career in 2012 at the young age of 18 with the low-cost lodging website Oravel Stays.
• His latter success was made possible by this venture, which was awarded a grant of Rs 30 lakh. At the age of 19, Agarwal was awarded a coveted seat in the Thiel Fellowship, which was started by Peter Thiel, and received a USD 100,000 grant in 2013 to realize his ideas.
• He took advantage of this chance to turn Oravel Stays into OYO Rooms, a force to be reckoned with in the hospitality sector. An important turning point in Agarwal’s business career was reached in May 2013, when OYO Rooms was founded as a result of the success of Oravel Stays.

The First Initiative

• OYO began as Oravel Stays, a website for listing and reserving low-cost lodging. After obtaining a $100,000 grant from the Thiel Fellowship, a program for young entrepreneurs founded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Agarwal changed the name to OYO in 2013. OYO used a full-fledged hotel chain business model, leasing and franchising its properties.
• It created jobs for hospitality aficionados, made capital expenditures, and employed general managers to supervise operations and client satisfaction.  In 2016, OYO opened its first location outside of India in Malaysia. In order to take advantage of seasonality, spikes in demand, and special occasions, it also implemented dynamic pricing.
• In 2018 and 2019, OYO opened locations in China, Indonesia, the US, the UK, Europe, and the Middle East. Additionally, it introduced new services and goods as OYO OS, OYO Townhouse, OYO Life, OYO Workspaces, and OYO Wizard.
• As of January 2020, YO boasted over 43,000 properties and 10 lakh (1 million) rooms spread over 800 cities in 80 countries. It employed more than 17,000 people worldwide.  SoftBank Group, Didi Chuxing, Greenoaks Capital, Hero Enterprise, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Airbnb, and China Lodging Group were among OYO’s investors.

Challenges for OYO

• The travel and hospitality sectors were badly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which decreased demand for hotel rooms and led to the closure or capacity reduction of numerous hotels.  
• Some of OYO’s hotel partners accused the company of fraud, poor management, contract violations, and nonpayment. They also claimed that OYO had altered the terms of agreements, withheld payments, and manipulated statistics.
• OYO had legal issues and regulatory barriers in a few of its markets, including China, Japan, the US, and India. For instance, a US hotel owner sued it for $8.5 million on claims of contract violations and fraud. Due to suspected tax avoidance, Indian authorities also conducted tax raids and investigations.
• Other participants in the low-cost hotel industry, including Treebo Hotels and FabHotels in India, Huazhu Hotels Group and Meituan Dianping in China, and Airbnb and Booking.com worldwide, competed with OYO.
• As OYO attempted to reduce expenses and simplify its operations, it encountered internal strife and layoffs. In 2020 and 2021, it reportedly furloughed or laid off thousands of workers in its marketplaces. Additionally, a number of senior executives quit or left the organization.
• OYO’s valuation fell from $10 billion in 2019 to $3 billion in 2020 as a result of these difficulties. In 2021, it also recorded a $510 million financial loss. In the midst of the pandemic-induced crisis, it found it difficult to attract further money from its current or potential investors.

OYO Rooms Journey

2013: Ritesh Agarwal selected for the Thiel Fellowship and received a $100,000 grant.

2014: Received first series A funding.

2015 – March: Received $25 million in funding

2015 – April: OYO app was launched followed by massive expansion.

2015 – July: Bagged $100 million in series C round of funding from SoftBank.

2016: The hotel chain hit the 1 million check-ins mark & also launched in Malaysia.

2017: Launched a business in Nepal.

2018: Established operations in the UK, UAE, Dubai, China, Singapore & Indonesia and became a unicorn.

2019: In total, OYO gained more than 330,000 rooms in 500 cities globally.

Ritesh Agarwal Success Story

Oyo, which provides more than simply rooms, swiftly rose to prominence in India’s hotel business. The company’s global reach now includes China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries in Southeast Asia. Ritesh became one of the youngest billionaires in the world in 2019 as Oyo’s worth surpassed $10 billion.

The secret to Oyo’s success is its capacity to recognize and address issues in the hospitality industry. With its user-friendly booking system and commitment to quality, the brand completely changed the way people think about low-cost lodging. As a result, he founded the biggest hotel chain in India and the third-largest chain of lodging rooms worldwide.

Awards & Recognition

-First Resident Asian to win ’20 Under 20’ Thiel Fellowship in 2013.

-One of the Top 50 Entrepreneurs by TATA First Dot Awards in 2013.

-One of the 8 Hottest Teenage Start-up Founders in the World by Business Insider in 2013.

-Received TiE-Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Award in 2014.

-Forbes “30 Under 30” in the Consumer Tech Sector.

-Young Entrepreneur Award by Business World.

Books

• Indian Engineering Colleges: A Complete Encyclopaedia Of Top 100 Engineering Colleges.
• Kaleidoscope (25 award-winning short stories).

Podcast

Ritesh Agarwal shares his story of how he always had grand plans for OYO and was able to execute them with his able colleagues to scale his company to today’s levels with Anand Daniel, partner at Accel, on the #INSIGHTSPodcast2019 series.

You can listen to the episode here – Building

OYO — A decacorn in the hotel industry | SeedToScale

Major Milestones in Ritesh Agarwal’s Journey

Year Milestone
1993 Born in Odisha, India
2013 Founded Oyo Rooms
2013 Won the Thiel Fellowship
2019 Oyo valued at over $10 billion
2024 Net worth exceeds ₹16,000 crores

Ritesh Agarwal – Shark Tank India

Ritesh Agarwal – Shark Tank India

The “sharks” are enjoying their moments on Shark Tank India Season 3, which is still gaining popularity among viewers. The new “sharks” that are joining this season in particular have drawn a lot of interest.

On the show, Ritesh Agarwal has received praise for his amiable manner. “I personally don’t like to call myself a shark,” he previously stated on the Shark Tank show. I think I’m more like a dolphin. My goal for attending the show was fairly straightforward: I wanted to help founders.

I set out to achieve this, and Shark Tank hasn’t let me down. Great ideas are important, but the founder and the person who started the business are more important. The jockey, in my opinion, is more significant than the horse.

Wrapping Up

No dream is too big, as demonstrated by Ritesh Agarwal’s achievement. He sees the hotel industry’s future centered on using technology to give guests smooth travel experiences. Oyo keeps pushing the envelope by using data analytics and AI to enhance the consumer experience.

“The goal is not just to grow a business, but to solve real problems for real people,” as Agarwal famously stated. Oyo and its innovative leader are at the forefront of revolutionizing the hospitality sector as India’s tourism industry is poised for expansion.

Quote

“As an entrepreneur, you have to be open to taking risks, especially when the downside is limited but the upside is high.” 

Ritesh Agarwal, OYO Founder

SA Team
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