Sportswear startup Agilitas Sports, co-founded by former Puma India MD Abhishek Ganguly, has secured funding of Rs 100 crore ($11.9 million) from venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners.
The funding would help Agilitas accelerate its growth plans and solidify its end-to-end capabilities from research and manufacturing to retail.
The company had earlier this year raised about Rs 430 crore. This includes Rs 400 crore from Convergent Finance LLP, an investment management and advisory partnership led by Harsha Raghavan, while Rs 30 crore was raised by individual investors.
Agilitas Sports was founded earlier this year by former Puma India MD Abhishek Ganguly and top Puma executives Atul Bajaj, and Amit Prabhu and operates in the fast-growing sportswear market in India and aims to become a global company, taking on brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma.
Commenting on the funding, Ganguly said, “We want to contribute towards the growing sports culture in the country by building robust manufacturing capabilities fuelled by strong R&D centres, product design labs and brands that resonate with consumers. This partnership strengthens our commitment towards investing in innovation across the value chain.”
Ganguly told Hindu Businessline that the fresh fund raise will enable the company to accelerate its scale-up trajectory.
“Agilitas Sports will be the holding company which will make large and substantial investments on building different lines of businesses while staying rooted in the sportswear segment. We are following a comprehensive approach addressing the entire value chain with an end-to-end play. This includes developing strong manufacturing capabilities in sports footwear, building strong research and product development capabilities, setting up design labs for new products and building brands,” he added.
In September, Agilitas announced the acquisition of Mochiko Shoes Pvt Ltd, which is the contract manufacturing partner for leading international brands such as adidas, Puma, New Balance, Skechers, Reebok, Asics, Crocs, Decathlon, among others. Ganguly said the company’s investment has helped Mochiko to strengthen capacities leading to a strong growth in the order book and the firm is poised to cross Rs 800 crore in revenues this fiscal.
“In terms of the B2C play, we will soon be finalising long-term licensing deals with global brands looking to foray into India. At the same time, we are also in conversations for acquisitions of brands in the sportswear segment. Our strategy is clear that as the overall pie of the sportswear segment grows, we will have multiple brands with definitive differentiated positioning at different price points. The purpose is to strengthen the sports culture in the country and not just cater to professionals but also equip local athletes at the grassroot levels,” he added.
Sports footwear accounts for 16 per cent of the overall footwear market and is the fastest-growing segment. India’s sportswear market is poised to grow at 4x the current size by 2030.
