Ritesh Agarwal

Founder & CEO

OYO Hotels & Homes was founded by 25-year-old Ritesh Agarwal, the first resident Asian to be accepted to the Thiel Fellowship (started by Paypal founder Peter Thiel). Traveling across India at the age of 17, Ritesh stayed in more than 100 bed and breakfasts, guest houses, and hotels to realize there was a massive dearth of affordable and good-quality hotels in the unbranded budget hotel category. With this in mind, he started his entrepreneurial journey with Oravel Stays, which was a platform for listing budget accommodations, only to conclude that discovery alone will not solve this problem. More often than not travelers and city-dwellers were forced to compromise on location, quality, and price, and Ritesh wanted to fix this problem using technology and talent. That’s how OYO was launched in May 2013 (known as OYO Hotels & Homes now), with the promise of delivering predictable, affordable, anytime-available stay experiences for travelers - a 100% ‘Made-in-India’ business model and the first-of-its-kind worldwide. OYO is today South Asia’s largest, one of China’s top four, and the world’s 6th largest and fastest-growing chain of franchised and leased hotels, homes & spaces. \nToday, Ritesh is one of the youngest and most successful founders in the world and has been honored at several forums, for creating a global disruptor in the form of OYO Hotels & Homes.