Ritesh Agarwal Wiki, Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More

Ritesh Agarwal is an Indian entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of a hospitality and travel-tech firm known as OYO Rooms. In 2016, his name was listed among the achievers of Forbes 30 under 30. In 2020, he became the second-youngest self-made billionaire. He is the richest self-made Indian under 40.

Wiki/Biography

Ritesh Agarwal was born on Tuesday, 16 November 1993 (age 30 years; as of 2023) in Bissam Cuttack, Rayagada, Orissa (now Odisha), India. His zodiac sign is Scorpio. He grew up in Titilagarh, Odisha. Ritesh did his schooling at Sacred Heart School, Rayagada, Odisha and then completed his high school at St. Johns Senior Secondary School, Meerut Cantt, Uttar Pradesh, India. Then he went to Kota, Rajasthan, to prepare for the IIT entrance exam. After that, in 2011, he joined the University of London International Program at the Indian School of Business and Finance, Delhi, and later dropped out. In 2013, he became the first Asian to receive the Thiel fellowship grant of $100,000 which was equal to Rs.55 Lakh. ^[1]Linkedln – Ritesh Agarwal

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 9″

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family & Caste

Ritesh Agarwal belongs to a Marwari family in Odisha.

Parents & Siblings

Ritesh Agarwal’s father is Ramesh Agarwal. He was a doctor in Odisha. On 10 March 2023, he died after falling from the 20th floor of a building in Gurgaon.

Ritesh Agarwal’s mother’s name is Bela Agarwal. She is a doctor by profession.

Ritesh has an elder brother named Ashish Agarwal. He works as a managing director at Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India & Southeast Asia). He has two elder sisters and both of them are doctors by profession.

Wife & Children

On 7 March 2023, Ritesh Agarwal married Geetansha Sood. Geetansha Sood works as the director of a private firm known as Formation Ventures Limited, a company based in Kanpur. They have a son named Aryan who was born on 7 December 2023.

Relationships/Affairs

Ritesh Agarwal dated Geetansha Sood for 11 years before getting married in 2023.

Career

In 2011, Ritesh Agarwal became India’s youngest CEO at 17, by owning a company named Worth Growth Partners. The company helped foreign companies to establish and expand their market in India. Ritesh had to shut down the company due to financial losses. Ritesh Agarwal started another company named Oravel Stays in 2011. In 2012, the company was selected by Venture Nursery for an accelerator program and received Rs. 30 lakhs in funding. The company’s business model was similar to Airbnb, where customers can book hotel rooms online at affordable prices across India.

In May 2013, when his business scaled up, he changed his company’s name to OYO (On Your Own) Rooms. It became the marketplace for hotels to get branded and bring in customers at a budget price. According to 2023, OYO Rooms are available in 80 countries across the globe.

Apart from OYO Rooms, he has been a partner in the company Raaga Partners LLP since 2016, a director of Dayzero Holdings Private Limited since 2021, and a partner in Redsprig Innovation Partners LLP since 2021.

Controversies

Ritesh Agarwal accused of cheating Oyo’s Co-Founder Manish Sinha

In 2013, Manish Sinha accused Ritesh Agarwal of cheating. Manish Sinha in an interview said that he was tricked into selling all his shares to Ritesh that he had for Oravel Stays. ^[2]Mint

Fined for unauthorised business in the United States

In 2019, OYO Rooms received a cease and desist order from Washington and a fine of $200,000 from Californian authorities for operating hotel businesses and reaching out to more than 30 hotel owners in the US under the brand name OYO without proper registration. ^[3]Forbes

Oyo was called an Online Fraud Company

In 2019 and 2020, hotel owners of Chandigarh, Bangalore, Mysore and other states filed several complaints against Ritesh Agarwal for fraud and conspiracy. According to sources, the owners claimed OYO takes more than half of their revenues through fees which is not disclosed by the company at the time of registration. However, Ritesh Agarwal successfully managed to put a stay order on one case in Bangalore. ^[4]Firstpost

Awards & Achievements

• First Resident Asian to win ’20 Under 20′ Thiel Fellowship (2013)

• Top 50 Entrepreneurs by TATA First Dot Awards (2013)
  

  Ritesh Agarwal receiving TATA First Dot Award

• Listed as “One of the 8 Hottest Teenage Start-up Founders in the World” by Business Insider (2013)

• Received TiE – Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Award (2014)

• Mentioned in Forbes “30 Under 30” in the Consumer Tech Sector (2016)

• Young Entrepreneur Award by Business World (2018)

Car Collection

• Mercedes-Benz S 350D worth Rs. 1.4 crores

• Audi A4 worth Rs. 45 lakhs

• Land Rover Range Rover Sports worth Rs. 1 crore

• Mercedes-Benz E200 worth Rs. 64 lakhs

• Toyota Fortuner worth Rs. 36 lakhs

• BMW X5 worth Rs. 1.1 crores

• Maruti Brezza worth Rs 15 lakhs

Income

According to sources, in 2023, Ritesh Agarwal’s monthly income was estimated to be Rs 10 crore and his annual income was estimated to be Rs 100 crore.

Net Worth

Ritesh Agarwal’s net worth is estimated at Rs. 16,462 crores as of 2023. ^[5]The Times of India

Expenses/Valuables

Ritesh Agarwal owns a private jet worth $20 million.

Favourites

• Food: Benne Dosa, Parota

• Dessert: Chhena Poda, Rasgulla, Cake, Pastry

• Cuisine: South Indian, Odia

• Film: Munna Bhai M.B.B.S (2003), 3 Idiots (2009)

• Sport: Cricket

• Book: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Blake Masters and Peter Thiel (2014), The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz (2014), No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention by Erin Meyer and Reed Hastings (2020)

• Documentary: The Men Who Built America (2012)

Facts/Trivia

• He likes travelling.

• He likes cycling, reading books, and watching documentaries in his free time.

• He used to sell SIM cards during his school days for a telecom company.

• He is an avid lover of dogs.
  

  Ritesh Agarwal with a dog

• At 16, he was selected at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai. It’s a camp where pre-collegiate students gather to discuss and promote science for the betterment of the region from where they belong.

• At 17, he authored a best-selling book titled Indian Engineering Colleges: A Complete Encyclopedia Of Top 100 Engineering Colleges.
  

• Ritesh Agarwal joined the judging panel of the television show Shark Tank India Season 3 on Sony TV.
  

  Ritesh Agarwal (centre right) with other judges from ‘Shark Tank India’ Season 3