Biography of Ritesh Agarwal, Young Indian Entrepreneur and CEO of OYO Rooms, Know his success story



 -     The reality of a startup is you have failures very often.

 -     Dropping out of college was never the plan, but it made me eligible for the Peter Thiel Fellowship. I was the first Asian to win that grant!

                                                                                            - By Ritesh Agarwal

                     Ritesh Agarwal  :           

Born              : 16 November 1993 (age 27)

                        Bissam Cuttack, Rayagada, Odisha

Occupation : CEO and Founder Of OYO

Years active : 2012-Present

Organization: OYO Rooms

Net worth    : US$1.1 billion (February 2020)

Title Group : CEO OF OYO Rooms

- Introduction :

Ritesh Agarwal is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur and the founder and Chief executive officer of Oyo Rooms. He became the world's second youngest billionaire in 2020. Agarwal is also a recipient of the Business World Young Entrepreneur Award.

- Early Life :

Ritesh Agarwal was born in Bissam Cuttack town of Odisha state, India and brought up in Titilagarh. At the age of 13, he started selling SIM cards. He graduated from St. Johns Senior Secondary School and moved to Delhi in 2011 for college. He dropped out of college, and was selected for the Thiel Fellowship in 2013. 

- Carrer :

Agarwal started a budget accommodation portal, Oravel Stays, for booking budget hotels. It was accepted into the accelerator program by Venture Nursery in September 2012, and later was one of the winners of the 2013 Thiel Fellowship  program, receiving a grant of $100,000. The company was launched as OYO Rooms in May 2013.

By September 2018, the company raised $1 billion. In July 2019 it was reported that Agarwal purchased $2 billion in shares in the company, tripling his stake. His net worth in 2020 was estimated to be approximately $1.1 billion (INR 7253 crore) according to Hurun Rich List 2020. As of February 2020, he is the second youngest self-made billionaire in the world.

- Controversies :

Agarwal signed agreements through his company OYO with hotel owners in the US in which the buildings of the owners will be rebranded under the Oyo name in exchange of compensation and guaranteed revenue, but left out the information that Oyo is not authorised to operate franchise business in the state of California. For which in March 2019, Oyo was fined $200,000 by California regulators. The company also received a cease and desist order from Washington, after regulators found Oyo made offers to many hotel owners and managers, without proper registration.

In September 2020, a case was lodged against Agarwal in Dera Bassi by a Chandigarh-based businessman for fraud and conspiracy under IPC 420 (cheating) 120 B (criminal conspiracy).

Oyo faced backlash from 10,000 hotel owners in India. According to them, Oyo takes up half or more of the revenues through fees that are not disclosed at the time when the hotels join Oyo. According to an October 2019 report, police cases were filed against Oyo by hotel operators in Bangalore, Chikmagalur, and other cities of Karnataka accusing Agarwal of fraud. The latter, however, successfully appealed for a stay order on one case in Bangalore.

" I'm a college dropout...."

"One should accept failure, and be willing to learn, unlearn and relearn again."

"In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can."

                                                                                             - By Ritesh Agarwal

                                  

 


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