OYO Rooms founder Ritesh Agarwal has become the youngest Shark on the panel of Shark Tank India Season 3. He will be joining the other Sharks - Aman Gupta (co-founder and CMO of boAt), Amit Jain (CEO and co-founder – CarDekho Group, InsuranceDekho.com), Anupam Mittal (founder and CEO of Shaadi.com – People Group), Namita Thapar (Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals), Vineeta Singh (Co-Founder and CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics) and Peyush Bansal (founder & CEO of Lenskart.com) - in the upcoming season.
Agarwal is a self-made billionaire and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India. He founded OYO Rooms in 2013 when he was just 19 years old. OYO Rooms is now one of the largest hotel chains in the world, with over 1.5 million rooms in over 80 countries.
Ritesh's debut video went viral after Sony Television announced his participation in Shark Tank India on social media.
SET India posted a video showing the Sharks sitting in their chairs, spinning around, and announcing the third season's newest Shark. The video was uploaded to the channel with the title "Shark Reveal! Welcoming our new Shark Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, of OYO Rooms, to Shark Tank India. Stay tuned for more exciting updates! #SharkTankIndia season 3 streaming soon on Sony LIV."
Born into a Marwari family, 29-year-old Ritesh Agarwal has made his mark as the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms, a globally recognized hospitality brand. His journey started with launching a budget accommodation portal, Oravel Stays, targeted at budget-conscious travellers.
Oravel Stays fatefully got selected for an accelerator program by Venture Nursery in 2012, setting the path for Agarwal’s future endeavours. An impressive win at the 2013 Thiel Fellowship program procured him a grant of $100,000, prepping him with the necessary funds to venture into a larger landscape. In May 2013, Agarwal launched OYO Rooms.
Agarwal's start-up raised a whopping $1 billion. But a year later, in July 2019, the entrepreneur made headlines once again, as he personally invested $2 billion to buy shares of his own company. Fast forward to 2020, and Agarwal found his name on the prestigious Hurun Rich List, with an estimated net worth of approximately $1.1 billion (Rs 7253 crore).
Shark Tank Show is the Indian version of the American television show Shark Tank. It depicts entrepreneurs giving business presentations to a panel of investors or sharks who determine whether or not to invest in their venture. The first season lasted from December 2021 to February 2022, and the second from January 2023 to March 2023.
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