BUSINESS

Oyo founder's wedding: Ritesh Agarwal seeks blessings of SoftBank's Son

Source: HT News Desk Mar-08-2023 3 min read

SoftBank has been a prominent and prolific investor in the Indian startup ecosystem, pumping in an estimated USD 15 billion over the years.

Billionaire investor and SoftBank Group Founder Masayoshi Son on Tuesday attended the wedding reception of Oyo Founder Ritesh Agarwal in New Delhi. In the pictures from the wedding reception widely shared on social media, Agarwal and his wife can be seen touching feet of the 65-year-old investor, a common gesture in India to seek blessings from elders.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of digital payments platform Paytm, also tweeted a photo of himself with Masayoshi Son. Another picture posted by him had various startup founders in it, including Lenskart CEO Peyush Bansal.

"Ultimate joy today, seeing Masa smiling, happy and enjoying his India trip. Everyone of us had tons of gratitude for his belief and support given to our startups," Sharma tweeted.

Son is said to have met founders and CEOs of some prominent startups during his day-long visit to the national capital, reported PTI citing sources.

SoftBank has been a prominent and prolific investor in the Indian startup ecosystem, pumping in an estimated USD 15 billion over the years. Some of the notable, early bets it had made included Ola, Oyo, Lenskart and Meesho.

According to a Bloomberg report, Son's plan to attend the wedding reception had created complexities for the organizers since the Tokyo-based investor, who increasingly prefers Zoom calls to in-person meetings, had asked for Covid-negative tests from those he was meeting.

Union minister Prahlad Patel also shared photographs of him with Ritesh Agarwal and Geetansha Sood, extending heartiest congratulations to the couple.