Ritesh Agarwal Height, Weight, Age, Facts, Biography

Ritesh Agarwal is an Indian entrepreneur who is best known as the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms, an Indian multinational hospitality chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes, and living spaces. The company’s roster includes more than 43,000 properties and 1 million rooms across 800 cities in 80 countries. In 2016, Ritesh was included in Forbes magazine’s list of ’30 under 30 (Asia)’ in the ‘consumer technology’ category.

Born Name

Ritesh Agarwal

Nick Name

Ritesh

Sun Sign

Scorpio

Born Place

Bishama Katek, Rayagada, Odisha, India

Residence

Delhi, India

Nationality

Education

Ritesh had attended Sacred Heart School in his home district of Rayagada. He graduated from St. Johns Senior Secondary School in Kota, Rajasthan, India. After his high school graduation, he moved to the capital city of Delhi in 2011 for further education.

He, however, dropped out of college and was selected for the Thiel Fellowship in 2013. The fellowship was created by German-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel for students aged 22 or younger. It offers them USD 100,000 over 2 years to pursue scientific research, the creation of a startup, or work on a social movement.

Occupation

Entrepreneur

Family

• Father – Ramesh Agarwal (Died in March 2023)

Net Worth

In 2020, Ritesh Agarwal had a net worth of approximately $1.1 billion according to the Hurun Rich List 2020.

Build

Slim

Height

5 ft 9 in or 175 cm

Weight

69 kg or 152 lbs

Girlfriend / Spouse

Ritesh has dated –

1. Geetansha Sood – In January 2023, it was announced that Ritesh was planning to tie the knot in March 2023. They got married in March 2023 and kept a wedding reception at the Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi on March 7, 2023. It was attended by many big entrepreneurs including Japan’s SoftbankGroup’s billionaire founder and CEO Masayoshi Son and Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma. In October 2023, it was revealed that they were expecting their first child together. In December 2023, they were blessed with a baby boy named Aryan.

Race / Ethnicity

Asian (Indian)

Hair Color

Black

Eye Color

Dark Brown

Sexual Orientation

Straight

Distinctive Features

• Slender frame
• Slightly overgrown, tousled, frizzy hair
• Affable smile
• Sports a beard

Religion

Hinduism

Ritesh Agarwal Facts

1. Ritesh’s family used to run a small shop in Rayagada, a district in the southern part of Odisha, a state in eastern India. He started selling SIM cards when he was about 13 years old.
2. In the early 2010s, he started a portal called Oravel Stays for booking budget hotels. In September 2012, the startup was accepted into the accelerator program of Venture Nursery, one of India’s first angel investor-backed startup accelerators.
3. When Ritesh was selected for the Thiel Fellowship in 2013, he used the fellowship’s USD 100,000 grant for his startup. In May 2013, the company was launched as OYO Rooms. OYO stands for ‘On Your Own’. By September 2018, the company had raised USD 1 billion in capital.
4. In March 2019, OYO Rooms was fined USD 200,000 by regulators in the state of California. The reason for this was that the company had signed agreements with hotel owners in the United States in which their buildings would be rebranded under the OYO name in exchange for compensation but did not mention the information that the company was not authorized to operate a franchise business in California.
5. Around the same time, OYO Rooms also received a ‘cease and desist’ order from Washington after it was alleged that the company made offers to many hotel owners and managers there without proper registration.
6. In July 2019, Ritesh reportedly purchased USD 2 billion worth of the company’s shares, tripling his stake. In February 2020, he had been recognized as the world’s then-second-youngest self-made billionaire.
7. In October 2019, police cases were filed against OYO Rooms by hotel operators in Bengaluru, Mysuru, and many other cities in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. They alleged that the company had defrauded them.
8. There have been numerous similar complaints from hotel owners across India who have accused OYO Rooms of taking up half or more of the revenues via fees that were not disclosed at the time the hotels had signed a contract with the company.
9. In June 2022, Ritesh was included in the International Hospitality Institute‘s ‘Global 100 in Hospitality’ list.
10. In March 2023, Ritesh’s father died after falling from the 20th floor of a building in Gurugram. Just 2 days before, Ritesh had married Geetansha.
11. In May 2023, Ritesh revealed that during the early days of OYO Rooms, he also used to work as a hotel staff member whenever required. Once he went to clean the room of an angry customer and got tipped ₹20.

Featured Image by Ritesh Agarwal / Instagram