5 Big Investments Made By Shark Ritesh Agarwal Before Shark Tank

Ritesh Agarwal began his path to success by selling SIM cards in a small Indian town and dropped out of college at 17 and has made us believe that dreams come true no matter how hard the path to success may be. It was a rocky road to success but he achieved his dream of entrepreneurship and co-founded OYO Rooms, which makes hotel booking easier and more affordable. With a net worth of ₹16,000 crore, he has been recognized on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list for Asia.

Agarwal became the youngest Shark to appear on Shark Tank India. Before providing financial help to startups on Shark Tank, Ritesh Agarwal made several investments in these amazing entrepreneurs.

5 Significant Investments by Ritesh Agarwal Prior to Shark Tank

Ritesh has done some of this investment through Aroa Ventures which is is Ritesh Agarwal’s family office. He has launched a new fund, Aroa Ventures, which targets early growth-stage startups. Backed by RACO Holding company, the fund focuses on companies with proven unit economics, 10 million in annual revenue, and a 20% year-on-year growth rate. Gaurav Gulati, former COO of Innov8, is the head of this fund.

This made Agarwal  one of the few founders turned investors in the Indian startup ecosystem joining the club with Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm and Flipkart’s Sachin and Binny Bansal.

• Urban Company- Urban Company, founded in 2014 by Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan, and Raghav Chandrawhi, provides consumers and services of a wide range of home services through its innovative technology platform. Urban Company gives users a diverse range of home services, including beauty and wellness, cleaning, repairs, and home maintenance.

Ritesh Agarwal invested in Urban Company through Arora Ventures.

• Zingbus-Zingbus, established in 2019 by Prashant Kumar, Mr. Ramneek Sharma, and Mr. Himanshu Singh, is a technology-driven intercity bus service in India. It provides comfort and affordability for users by offering convenient bus rides.

Ritesh Agarwal with Titan Capital, Better Capital, and Anupam Mittal, the Founder of PeopleGroup Ventures Catalyst, participated in Zingbus’s pre-Series A funding round. However, the exact amount of investment remains undisclosed.

The funding round also has the 9Unicorns accelerator fund, AdvantEdge Founders, Smile Internet, MG Group, and several other marquee angel investors.

• Unacademy-Unacademy, established in 2015,  by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, and Hemesh Singh is an  Indian online learning platform that provides video lectures, live classes, and study materials for various competitive exams.

Aroa Ventures, the family office of OYO Rooms founder Ritesh Aggarwal participated in Unacadmey ‘s Series H Funding round along with Zomato’s CEO, Deepinder Goyal. In the latest fundraising round, Unacademy Group’s valuation reached $3.44 billion after raising $440 million, led by Temasek, General Atlantic, Tiger Global, and SoftBank Vision Fund.

• MPL-MPL, Mobile Premier League, is a gaming platform from India. It was founded in 2018 by Sai Srinivas Kiran G and Shubham Malhotra.  MPL, provides different games on your phone, and even join competitions to win real money.

Mobile Premier League, got $500K from Ritesh Agarwal’s RA MPL Holding Pte. This funding took place after MPL’s recent million funding round.

• Dukaan-Dukaan,founded by Suumit Shah in 2020 is an Indian e-commerce platform that helps small businesses easily create and manage their online stores without technical expertise.

Ritesh Agarwal, invested in Dukaan’s $11 million funding round. The investment was part of a round led by 640 Oxford Ventures, which led to a one million valuation of Dukan. Carl Pie from Nothing also took part in this investment.

Read More: 5 Notable Investments Made by Deepinder Goyal before Shark Tank India