Ritesh Agarwal

Ritesh Agarwal

Founder & CEO, OYO

Agarwal sets the overall strategic vision and direction for the company. Two of his key focus areas are product and technology initiatives and looking after the overall execution at OYO.

Travelling across India at the age of 17, Agarwal stayed in more than 100 bed and breakfasts, guest houses and hotels to realize there was a huge dearth of affordable and good-quality hotels in the unbranded budget hotel category. He started his entrepreneurial journey with Oravel Stays, which was a platform for listing budget accommodations. In 2013, Oravel transformed from a discovery marketplace to a managed marketplace for standardized hotels listed under the OYO brand. Starting with a single hotel in Gurgaon in 2013, OYO is currently present in over 160 cities in India.

He was the first Asian to be selected for the Thiel Fellowship (started by PayPal founder, Peter Thiel) in 2013.