Ritu Raj is an entrepreneur based in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Raj is the founder of Avasta, OrchestratorMail and Objectiveli, as well as Wag Hotels, a chain of luxury hotels for dogs and cats.

Education and early career

Ritu Raj graduated from

Kirori Mal College Kirori Mal College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi. Established in 1954, it is located in the North Campus of the university in New Delhi, India. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the sciences, humanitie ...

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

, and worked for IT consulting firms in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

before moving to the US in 1994. Upon his arrival in the US, he worked for a small startup, AT Systems, and was later an executive with

TMP Worldwide Radancy, formerly known as TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications, LLC, is an independent technology company that provides SaaS for recruitment and talent acquisition. Headquartered in New York City, the company has 14 offices in the United Sta ...

Chapter 2/Avasta

In 1999, Raj founded Chapter 2, an application service provider (ASP) that supports the business applications for companies as an outsourcing company running the companies' existing networks. The company based its name on the idea that chapter one of the internet was web site hosting, with chapter two being business application hosting. In 2000 the company secured $9.5 million in funding. That year they also opened offices that provided back-office operations, security management and call center operations services. As of 2001, the company had raised $50 million from investors. That year Chapter 2 was renamed Avasta - a name based on the Sanskrit word "vasta," meaning "to stand and remain" - in order to reflect the company's new services. In 2003, Avasta was acquired by NaviSite.

Wag Hotels

Following Avasta, Raj was a partner with the information technology consulting firm Accenture. He was away from home and his dog frequently. This was the inspiration behind his venture Wag Hotels, a California-based line of luxury hotel for dogs and cats. In 2005, Wag opened its first location in

West Sacramento West Sacramento (also known as West Sac) is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. The city is separated from Sacramento by the Sacramento River, which also separates Sacramento and Yolo counties. It is a fast-growing community; the ...

. The company also operates Wag Store, a hotel-affiliated store. In 2007, Wag opened a location in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. In June 2007, the company also bought a stake in the Modesto-based pet quarterly publication, ''Wag Magazine''.

Other Ventures

In 2010, Raj co-founded OrchestratorMail, and serves as the company's CEO. An application that works on top of an existing user's email platform, OrchestratorMail organizes email into a set of categories. Users then use this differentiation to determine what emails to reply to first. From 2011-2012, Raj was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Spring Ventures, LLC, a venture capital firm in San Francisco. While there, he helped launch SideCar, a ride-sharing app that connects drivers with people looking for rides. In exchange, passengers can give drivers a financial donation. The apps were initially banned, however new regulations have since allowed them to operate. In 2012, Raj co-founded Objectiveli with Jonathan Yankovich. Objectiveli is a web application designed for companies to set and manage objectives and goals and track the outcomes in real-time.

References

External links

Wag Hotels

OrchestratorMail

Objectiveli
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raj, Ritu Living people Businesspeople from California People from Delhi Delhi University alumni American people of Indian descent Year of birth missing (living people)