Ritesh Agarwal, Oyo Rooms founder-CEO and Shark Tank India 3 judge, was all praises for his "4 am friend" and Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath. Agarwal on Tuesday said that Kamath has this amazing ability to keep one engrossed in conversation for hours. He added that Kamath’s questions have the potential to transport the other person down the memory lane.
“I can’t remember the last time I was awake till 4 am chatting with friends. Nikhil has this amazing ability to keep you engrossed for hours and his questions unlock memories you may not even realise you had in the first place. Had a great time recording this with my 4 am friends Nikhil Kamath, Ghazal Alagh and Manish Poddar,” Agarwal said on X (formerly Twitter), along with a photo of the duo. Kamath retweeted Agarwal’s post with a heart emoticon.
Ritesh Agarwal at Shark Tank India
Meanwhile, the Oyo Rooms founder, a self-made billionaire, is currently being seen on the third season of Shark Tank India, which is aired on Sony TV. On the show, he is joined by other sharks or judges- boAt co-founder and CMO Aman Gupta, CarDekho Group and InsuranceDekho.com co-founder and CEO Amit Jain, Shaadi.com founder and CEO Anupam Mittal, Emcure Pharmaceuticals Executive Director Namita Thapar, SUGAR Cosmetics co-founder and CEO Vineeta Singh, and Lenskart.com founder and CEO Peyush Bansal.
Ritesh Agarwal’s journey
Born into a Marwari family, a 30-year-old Ritesh Agarwal founded OYO Rooms in 2013 when he was just 19 years old. Ritesh Agarwal attended the Sacred Heart School in Odisha’s Rayagada and later St Johns Senior Secondary School before moving to Delhi for college in 2011.
Agarwal’s entrepreneurial journey began with the launch of Oravel Stays, a budget accommodation portal targeted at budget-conscious travellers. Oravel Stays got selected for an accelerator program by Venture Nursery in 2012. After this, winning the 2013 Thiel Fellowship programme procured him a grant of $100,000. Following this, Agarwal launched OYO Rooms in May 2013.
At present, OYO Rooms is one of the largest hotel chains in the world and boasts of more than 1.5 million rooms in over 80 countries. Fast forward to 2020, Agarwal found his name on the Hurun Rich List with an estimated net worth of around Rs 7,253 crore or $1.1 billion.