ABOUT
About Ritesh Mani
Ritesh Mani is an entrepreneur and business strategist with more than 28 years of entrepreneurial and corporate experience. He is the founder and driving force behind Acendia Agency, New Zealand's results-focused inbound lead generation agency, and the founder of the Safer Cycling Foundation.
BIOGRAPHY
An Operator's Career
From launching his first successful venture at just 22 years old, Ritesh has built and scaled four separate businesses generating more than $10 million in revenue within three years of launch, spanning technology, sales and marketing, real estate, property development, and financial services. Across his career, companies under his leadership have achieved combined revenues exceeding $275 million.
He is a proven strategist with an instinctive ability to spot emerging trends and build market-leading brands — a thread that runs through every chapter of his career and business journey, from his earliest ventures to his current work at Acendia Agency.
In 1998, Ritesh established a mobile phone retail start-up which rapidly grew to seven stores nationwide. He was the first operator in New Zealand to introduce mobile phone sales through dedicated kiosks inside Westfield and KiwiProperty malls across the North Island — a model that reshaped how mobile products were sold locally.
He later expanded into real estate, investments, and property management, successfully franchising two separate businesses before moving into large-scale property development projects. For many years, Ritesh has also acted as a trusted advisor to financial planning firms and investment houses, designing marketing and operational systems that remain in use today.
He first launched Sales Dynamics in 2007, building a high-performance team of 16 sales specialists. Among his most notable projects, he led the launch campaign for the American Express Platinum credit card in New Zealand, improving outbound sales conversion rates from 4% to 18% within just three months.
His corporate background includes senior roles within four publicly listed companies, leading in-house digital marketing teams and managing architectural services divisions across several years.
TRACK RECORD
By the Numbers
- Years of entrepreneurial and corporate experience
- 28+
- Businesses scaled to more than $10M in revenue within three years of launch
- 4
- Combined revenues achieved by companies under his leadership
- $275M+
- Mobile retail stores established from his first venture
- 7
- Sales specialists built into the Sales Dynamics team
- 16
PHILOSOPHY
An Operator, Not Just a Marketer
Through Acendia Agency, Ritesh now brings this breadth of experience to help businesses of all sizes leverage SEO and social media marketing to maximise revenue, strengthen brand authority, and achieve sustainable growth. Acendia's approach is shaped directly by his track record as an operator rather than a pure marketer — built on the belief that lead generation should be measured in revenue, not vanity metrics.
COMMUNITY
Beyond Business
Alongside his business career, Ritesh is the founder of the Safer Cycling Foundation, a New Zealand initiative dedicated to protecting and educating cyclists, improving road safety, and building greater respect between drivers and riders. What began as a personal mission to make roads safer for his own children and community has grown into a national initiative supporting schools, local councils, and families across Aotearoa — including helmet distribution and partnerships with road safety advocacy groups.
While best known publicly for his work in property and business, Ritesh has described this grassroots community work as where his heart is, reflecting his broader view that business owners carry a responsibility to give back to the communities they serve.