Ritesh Agarwal founded OYO in 2013, transforming a budget hotel startup into one of the world's largest hospitality technology platforms.
Discover how Ritesh Agarwal built OYO from a small hotel-booking startup into one of the world’s largest hospitality brands, transforming budget accommodation through technology and standardization.
Written by TFN Research Desk | covering startups, technology, venture capital, and business strategy.
Table of Contents
- Who is Ritesh Agarwal?
- Early Life and Education
- Career Before OYO
- How OYO Started
- Funding History
- Revenue Growth and Recent Challenges
- Public Recognition
- OYO vs Competitors
- Investor Perspective
- Founder Timeline
- Key Takeaways
- FAQs
- Sources
Who is Ritesh Agarwal?
Ritesh Agarwal is the founder and Group CEO of PRISM, the parent company of OYO, the budget hospitality brand he built starting in 2013. Born in a small town in Odisha, he dropped out of college as a teenager after winning the Thiel Fellowship, a $100,000 grant that requires recipients to skip formal education. He was 19 when he launched OYO, making him one of India’s youngest founders to build a company with global scale.
Early Life and Education
Agarwal was born on November 16, 1993, in Bissam Cuttack, Odisha, and grew up in Rayagada, where his family ran a small shop. He attended St. John’s Senior Secondary School before moving to Delhi for college, but dropped out soon after enrolling to pursue his hotel booking idea full time. As a teenager, he sold SIM cards, an early sign of his instinct for small scale commerce.
Career Before OYO
At 17, traveling across India and staying in more than a hundred budget hotels and guesthouses, Agarwal noticed how inconsistent quality was across unbranded accommodation. In September 2012 he launched Oravel Stays, a listing platform for budget stays, which was incubated by Venture Nursery. He soon realized that simply listing properties did not fix the trust problem travelers faced, since quality still varied wildly between listings.
How OYO Started
OYO launched on May 21, 2013, in Gurgaon, pivoting from Oravel’s listings model to a franchise style network that standardized rooms with air conditioning, Wi-Fi, breakfast, and consistent check-in service. The same year, Agarwal became the first Indian selected for the Thiel Fellowship, and the $100,000 grant helped fund OYO’s early scale-up. The franchise model, rather than pure discovery, became the proof point: it let OYO guarantee a baseline experience across thousands of small, independently owned hotels.
Funding History
| Round | Year | Amount | Lead Investor(s) |
| Seed | 2014 | Not publicly disclosed | Peak XV Partners (then Sequoia India) |
| Series B | Aug 2015 | Not publicly disclosed | SoftBank Vision Fund |
| Series C | 2016 | Not publicly disclosed | SoftBank |
| Series D | Sep 2017 | Not publicly disclosed | SoftBank, Lightspeed |
| Series E | Sep 2018 | $800 million (of $1B round) | SoftBank Vision Fund |
| Series F | Oct 2019 | $1.5 billion | SoftBank |
| Series G | 2024 | $175 million (incl. $100M from Agarwal) | Agarwal, existing investors |
OYO has raised roughly $3.5 billion in total funding, according to Tracxn and Sacra, with SoftBank remaining its largest institutional backer. The company filed for an IPO in 2021 and withdrew it twice, most recently in 2024, before its 2025-26 rebrand to PRISM revived listing plans.
Revenue Growth and Recent Challenges
| Fiscal Year | Revenue | Net Profit/Loss |
| FY24 | ₹5,395 crore | ₹229.6 crore profit |
| FY25 | ₹6,252.8 crore | ₹244.8 crore profit |
| 9M FY26 | ₹6,940.97 crore | ₹748.34 crore profit |
PRISM’s FY25 profit included a large deferred tax gain; stripping that out, the company ran a pre-tax loss of ₹489.3 crore, showing that reported profitability is not yet fully organic. India now contributes only about a fifth to a third of revenue, with the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia driving most growth, partly through the 2024 acquisition of Motel 6 owner G6 Hospitality.
Public Recognition
Agarwal has judged Shark Tank India since 2024, becoming its youngest investor. He has featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia, Fortune’s Tycoons of Tomorrow, and Bloomberg’s 50 list, and sits on FICCI’s executive committee.
OYO vs Competitors
| Brand | Founded | Latest Revenue | Positioning |
| OYO (PRISM) | 2013 | ₹6,252.8 crore (FY25) | Budget to midscale hotel franchising, global |
| MakeMyTrip | 2000 | $9.8 billion gross bookings (FY25) | Online travel agency, broader travel services |
| Treebo | 2015 | Not publicly disclosed | Budget hotel network, smaller scale, SaaS pivot |
OYO operates at far greater scale than direct budget hotel rivals like Treebo and FabHotels, but competes with MakeMyTrip in hotel bookings and with global chains like Wyndham in the franchise segment.
Investor Perspective
Agarwal’s willingness to build a genuinely global business from India, expanding into the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia, sets him apart from most Indian consumer founders. His strength lies in an asset-light franchise model that scaled to over 290,000 storefronts. The risk is that reported profitability still leans on one-time gains rather than core operations, and OYO has withdrawn IPO filings twice before. If PRISM’s current profitability trend holds without accounting adjustments, the pending IPO could finally deliver the public listing investors have waited on since 2021.
Founder Timeline
- 1993 — Born in Bissam Cuttack, Odisha
- 2011 — Moves to Delhi for college, drops out
- 2012 — Launches Oravel Stays
- 2013 — Founds OYO; wins Thiel Fellowship
- 2015 — SoftBank Vision Fund invests
- 2018 — OYO raises $1 billion, becomes unicorn
- 2019 — Series F of $1.5 billion; valuation hits $10 billion
- 2021 — Files first IPO papers, later withdrawn
- 2024 — Acquires G6 Hospitality; joins Shark Tank India
- 2025 — Rebrands parent company to PRISM; reports FY25 profit
- 2026 — Files updated IPO papers with SEBI
Key Takeaways
- Standardizing an existing fragmented market, rather than inventing a new one, can be as valuable as pure innovation.
- Diversifying revenue geographically reduced OYO’s dependence on the competitive Indian market.
- Repeated IPO withdrawals show that public market credibility takes longer to build than private funding.
- Profitability built on one-time gains needs scrutiny before it can be called sustainable.
FAQs
Who founded OYO?
Ritesh Agarwal, in 2013.
How much funding has OYO raised?
Around $3.5 billion, per Tracxn.
Is OYO profitable?
It reported profit in FY24 and FY25, though partly aided by tax gains.
What is PRISM?
OYO’s 2025 rebranded parent corporate entity.
Is OYO going public?
It filed updated IPO papers with SEBI in 2026 after two earlier withdrawals.
Where did Agarwal study?
He enrolled in Delhi but dropped out to pursue OYO.
What is the Thiel Fellowship?
A $100,000 grant for young founders who forgo college, awarded to Agarwal in 2013.
Sources
- Grokipedia — Ritesh Agarwal profile: https://grokipedia.com/page/Ritesh_Agarwal
- CNBC — Peter Thiel’s advice to Ritesh Agarwal: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/30/lessons-from-peter-thiel-helped-ritesh-agarwal-build-indias-oyo.html
- World Economic Forum — Ritesh Agarwal profile: https://www.weforum.org/people/ritesh-agarwal/
- Tracxn — OYO funding data: https://tracxn.com/d/companies/oyo/__4WYOfbQ8dZW1qkRczPYOvhjiKi-yVahNF_FWeMXP0tk/funding-and-investors
- TechCrunch — OYO $1B funding round: https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/25/oyo-raises-1-billion/
- TechCrunch — OYO valuation cut, IPO withdrawal: https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/11/oyo-valuation-crashes-over-75-in-new-funding/
- Medianama — OYO FY25 revenue and PRISM rebrand: https://www.medianama.com/2025/09/223-india-20-oyo-fy25-revenue-rebrands/
- Inc42 — PRISM 2025 reset and IPO plans: https://inc42.com/features/oyos-2025-reset-profitability-governance-and-global-pivot-on-ipo-turf/
- The Week — PRISM updated IPO filing: https://www.theweek.in/news/biz-tech/2026/06/30/prism-oyo-parent-ipo-filing-update.html
- Business Standard — MakeMyTrip FY25 results: https://www.business-standard.com/companies/quarterly-results/make-my-trip-fy25-bookings-hit-record-9-8-bn-profit-at-95-3-mn-125051401631_1.html
- Sacra — OYO revenue and competitor analysis: https://sacra.com/c/oyo-rooms/
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