Renowned Indian entrepreneur Ritesh Agarwal, the founder and CEO of Oyo Rooms, is joining Venture Catalysts (VCats) as an advisor this week. The Mumbai-based incubator, ranked the world’s seventh most active early-stage investor and integrated incubator by CrunchBase, is known for developing and nurturing early-stage start-ups such as Beardo, BharatPe, Fynd, Supr, and Coutloot.
As an advisor to VCats, Agarwal will work closely with India’s largest incubator to promote entrepreneurship throughout India. India boasts an especially vibrant start-up ecosystem—one of the biggest and fastest-growing in the world—and needs more experienced and successful people like Agarwal to help it reach its full potential. As a result, Agarwal is taking on the advisor role to give back to his country and fellow entrepreneurs alongside Venture Catalysts Founder and President Dr. Apoorv Sharma, who was one of the first people to back Agarwal's vision when he started Oravel Stays in 2012, and later established OYO in 2013.
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Ritesh. He is currently on the board of MDI University and was the first Asian to receive the Thiel Fellowship, the coveted fellowship established by renowned venture capitalist Peter Thiel to support innovative ideas to entrepreneurs under the age of 20,” said Sharma. “I was one of his early supporters, and am really happy to see his commitment to continuing to support students and young founders in India. Ritesh’s insights will prove tremendously valuable to entrepreneurs as we continue to execute our plan to build a robust infrastructure for start-ups in all the tier 1,2,3 and 4 cities across India. His advice will also help many upcoming entrepreneurs, who have the potential to become the next Unicorn but have very limited access to the right support and mentorship.”
As an entrepreneur hailing from Rayagada, Orissa, who started his journey at a young age, Agarwal realizes the importance of mentorship and guidance for young and early-stage founders. He fondly remembers how different people across the start-up ecosystem played important and strategic roles in enabling Oyo Room’s sustained growth and expansion. He believes that a start-up requires support at various levels in its early days. While it is imperative for founders to have the right vision, focus, perseverance, and patience, the role of supporters like Apoorv, who mentored and guided him, is critical and key to their success.
“I started Oyo Rooms at a very young age, at a time when the ecosystem was not fully developed. I was fortunate enough to get some great mentors like Dr. Apoorva, Bejul Somaia, and many others, who guided and supported me in my start-up journey,” Agarwal said. “Today, many former OYOpreneurs have started their new ventures and are doing really well for themselves. Now that I have established myself as an entrepreneur, I think it is time to give back to society and support entrepreneurs like them.”
Sharma, who holds his Ph.D. in incubation, is one of the founding fathers of India’s start-up ecosystem. Since 2000, he has pioneered the concept of incubation nationwide and has established over a dozen incubators and accelerators before starting VCats in 2015.
Venture Catalysts (VCats), which is now the world’s seventh most active early-stage investor and integrated incubator according to CrunchBase, is known for developing and nurturing early-stage start-ups. The Mumbai-based incubator has a deep presence in over 30 smaller Indian towns such as Jaipur; Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Vizag, Rajkot, and Ahmedabad, amongst others. VCats’ immense capability to spot the big idea in those towns and cities has resulted in the discovery of start-ups such as Beardo, BharatPe, Fynd, Supr, and Coutloot, among others, in various sectors ranging from FMCG to FinTech.
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