MUMBAI: The Indian sports education and training organization, KOOH Sports has sold a minority stake to venture capitalist firm Gaja Capital worth Rs. 736 million ($10 million), Economic Times reports.
It will join the likes of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and HDFC who are amongst the major Indian businesses that altogether hold a 70% stake in KOOH.
Gaja will be acquiring the stake through its sports subsidiary, SportzVillage that provides integrated sports management services through two of its ventures – SportzConsult, that focusses more on corporates and EduSports, which reaches out to schools and universities.
The company’s investment is expected to be a mix of primary and secondary stake buy, where a few of the existing investors will make a part exit.
KOOH will be Gaja’s ninth investment from its third fund, the $240 million Gaja – III. Its other notable investments have been in brands such as Eurokids and Teamlease, a lot of which are renowned in the Indian corporate sector.
“Youth sports is a $20 billion business globally and we believe it to be at an inflexion point in India. As Indians move from watching sports to playing and training for competitive sports, there is an opportunity to create a valuable performance sports platform,” Gaja Capital MD and co-founder Gopal Jain was quoted as saying to ET.
KOOH or ‘Kids Out of Home’ Sports was launched in 2010 by Susir Kumar and Prabhu Srinivasan and has focused upon grassroots development across 50 cities in the country, impacting the lives of 200,000 children. It also has some of its operations in the UAE.
