Ritesh Agarwal
Founder & CEO, OYO
HospitalityTurned fragmented budget hotels into a global branded network, as a teenager.
Ritesh Agarwal started OYO as a teenager, frustrated by how unreliable budget hotels in India were.
What they built
OYO signed up small hotels, standardised the basics, clean sheets, working wifi, predictable pricing, and put them under one brand and app. The model scaled fast across India and abroad, through booms and hard resets.
Why it matters for India
OYO showed that a very young Indian founder could take on a messy, offline, trust-poor category and build a recognisable brand at global scale.