The creator and CEO of OYO Rooms, the most reasonably priced hotel chain in the world, is Ritesh Agarwal. At the age of 20, he set out on his journey with the intention of creating a solution for people searching for affordable hotels worldwide, and he is making great progress toward achieving that objective. You might use Ritesh Agarwal’s success story as your daily source of motivation.
Ritesh Agarwal’s Childhood and Schooling
Ritesh Agarwal attended Sacred Heart School in Rayagada and was born into a business family in Bissam Cuttack, Orissa. Growing up in Rayagada, Odisha, meant enjoying life and studying for him, although he approached learning in a very different way than other kids did. He thoroughly enjoyed himself playing about on the computer and searching for chances to make mistakes in order to gain fresh insights.
He consequently became quite interested in software! In 2009, Ritesh moved to Kota to attend IIT, but it didn’t take him long to realize that Kota was more than just a place to learn programming. In the past, he would travel and unwind in his spare time. In fact, he began writing a book that he eventually had to transcribe, called “Indian Engineering Colleges: A Complete Encyclopedia of Top 100 Engineering Colleges.” On Flipkart, this book gained a lot of traction and immediately sold out.
The Start of His Business Adventure
Before starting OYO, Ritesh Agarwal was a nomad who traversed the nation, and it was on these travels that he became aware of the issue with reasonably priced motels. Consequently, he created Oravel Travels, an Airbnb-inspired business, at the age of 17. Later on, though, OYO rooms became the name of it. Seeing that there were other challenges besides availability with cheap hotels, he founded OYO in May 2013 to tackle them.
Agarwal Ritesh Earning
Counted among the wealthiest young men in India, Ritesh Agarwal has a net worth of approximately $612.1 million (Rs. 4,547 crores).
The Hurun report claims that as a result of COVID-19, Ritesh Agarwal’s net worth has dropped and he no longer qualifies as a billionaire.
In 2021, Ritesh became the second-youngest billionaire in India, according to Wikipedia.
Based on Forbes’ 2021 list, Kevin David Lehmann emerged as the world’s youngest billionaire, with a net worth of $3.3 billion.
Hurun Rich List 2020 states that he withheld $1.1 billion, making him a billionaire.
OYO’s launch
When a hotel owner or OYO Rooms made contact with potential hotel partners, their team would visit the site, audit the establishment to determine what upgrades would be necessary to bring the facility up to OYO standards, and then provide the hoteliers with the information. After the launch, the team was joined by Bhawna Agarwal, the former CEO of SeventyMM, a major e-commerce company, who offered valuable business advise. VentureNursery, a business accelerator that brought together a group of investors to nurture startups, awarded Ritesh a fund of thirty lakhs. Later in 2014, OYO Rooms raised four crores from LightSpeed Venture and fourteen crores from DSG Consumer.
OYO stands for “ON YOUR OWN.”
A member of OYO Rooms’ team would visit the site, conduct an audit of the hotel, and provide the results to the hotels. Alternatively, a hotel owner may initiate contact with OYO Rooms. Returning to the team to offer guidance on business was Bhawna Agarwal, the former CEO of SeventyMM, a massive e-commerce company. VentureNursery, a startup accelerator that puts together a group of investors to support entrepreneurs’ growth, awarded Ritesh a fund of thirty lakhs. Later that year, OYO Rooms secured $4 million from Lightspeed Venture and $14 million from DSG Consumer.
Other than OYO
Apart from being an entrepreneur, Ritesh is also a developer, an author, and an excellent speaker. He started learning to code when he was eight years old, and at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, he was one of the 240 students who attended an Asian camp when he was sixteen. In 2014, he was the panelist from Think EDU who was the youngest. He has consistently attended the VCCircle events.
In the same year that he started Oravel travels, he received a nomination for the Thiel fellowship. PayPal founder Peter Thiel established the fellowship, which gives a college dropout under 22 years old a $100,000 grant to work on a start-up idea. He is definitely the only Indian to be given it.
