Ritesh Agarwal

From a small town in Odisha to the founder of OYO, one of the world's largest hospitality platforms.

Born: 16 November 1993, Odisha
Country: India
Known for: OYO (Oravel Stays), PRISM
Industry: Hospitality tech, travel tech

Early life

Ritesh Agarwal was born in 1993 in Odisha into a Marwari family and grew up in Titilagarh, where his family ran a small shop in nearby Rayagada. He went to school locally and moved to Delhi in 2011, aged 17, to study. He is widely described as a college dropout, though sources do not agree on the details of his studies.

The idea behind Oravel

Ritesh was a keen traveller, staying in budget hotels whose quality rarely matched their prices. Around 2011–2012 he started Oravel Stays, an Airbnb-style site for listing and booking budget stays. In 2012 it went through the Venture Nursery accelerator programme, and in 2013 Ritesh won a Thiel Fellowship, which came with a US$100,000 grant for young founders.

OYO Rooms

In May 2013 the business was relaunched as OYO Rooms (OYO stands for "On Your Own"). Instead of listing any hotel, OYO partnered with independent hotel owners, standardised the rooms and added its own branding, technology and pricing tools. This asset-light model let it grow across many cities very quickly. By 2018 it had expanded abroad, including the UK and China, and later added vacation homes and co-working.

Funding and growth

SoftBank became OYO's largest backer, and by September 2018 the company had raised about US$1 billion in total. In 2019 Ritesh was reported to have bought about US$2 billion worth of shares, roughly tripling his stake. In 2024 OYO also agreed to acquire G6 Hospitality, the owner of the US budget motel chains Motel 6 and Studio 6.

Turning profitable and the IPO

After years of heavy losses, OYO reported its first full-year profit after tax, about ₹229 crore, for FY2023–24, with adjusted EBITDA up 215% to ₹877 crore. The parent company has since been rebranded PRISM, with Ritesh as founder and CEO. Earlier attempts to list in 2021 and 2023 did not complete. In December 2025 PRISM filed again for an IPO of up to ₹6,650 crore, and in mid-2026 it was reported to have SEBI approval and to have filed updated papers. A listing had not been confirmed in the reports I found, so check for the latest status.

Beyond OYO

Ritesh has appeared as a panellist on Shark Tank India, where he backs early-stage founders.

Timeline

2011Moves to Delhi and starts working on his first travel venture.
2012Oravel Stays goes through the Venture Nursery programme.
2013Wins a Thiel Fellowship (US$100,000) and launches OYO Rooms in May.
2018OYO has raised about US$1 billion in total and expands to the UK and China.
2019Reported to buy about US$2 billion in shares, tripling his stake.
2024Reports first full-year profit (₹229 crore); agrees to acquire G6 Hospitality (Motel 6).
2025Parent company is rebranded PRISM and files for an IPO of up to ₹6,650 crore.
2026Reported to receive SEBI approval for the IPO.

Recognition

Thiel Fellowship (2013)
Forbes Asia 30 Under 30

Leadership lessons

A customer's frustration is a market signal. Fix the problem you have lived through.
When the first version is not the one, relaunch it.
Standardise the experience, not the assets. Partnering with owners let OYO scale without buying buildings.
Growth at any cost has limits; the move to profit shows the value of discipline.

The takeaway: a customer's frustration is a market signal, and when the first version is not the one, relaunch it. Ritesh's journey from a small Odisha town to OYO, and from heavy losses to a profit and an IPO filing, shows how persistence and a clear model can scale fast.

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Sources

Written from public information, including Wikipedia, Netfigo, UnlistedKraft and press reports on the PRISM IPO such as Skift. The sources disagree on some details, such as the founding year and his education, and several figures are reported rather than confirmed, so Wikipedia is followed where they differ. Net worth is left out because estimates conflict.