Nigh on two months after it was made official that cricketer Virat Kohli, India’s biggest celebrity endorser, was joining sports athleisure brand Agilitas as an investor and brand ambassador, some details of the investment deal terms have been made public.
According to news reports published over the weekend, Kohli is investing ₹40 crore ($4.67 million) in Agilitas, as part of the first tranche of what is reportedly a larger funding round. Kohli will be allocated just over 360,000 convertible preference shares, which will be converted into an as yet unspecifies equity stake at a later date.
This investment adds to Kohli’s growing startup portfolio, which already includes ventures like Wrogn, Rage Coffee and Digit Insurance, among several others.
Per estimates put out by Entrackr, Bengaluru-based Agilitas has been valued at ₹2,058 crore (approximately $242m) post money. As for Kohli’s “first tranche” investment into Agilitas, it gives him a 1.94% stake in Agilitas, according to TheKredible.
Entrackr further reports that the board of Agilitas Sports allotted 3,61,611 class 2 CCPS at an issue price of ₹1,106 each to raise the aforementioned amount, its regulatory filing accessed from Registrar of Companies (RoC) shows.
In addition to this, the firm also raising ₹3 crore from SMLINE Ventures and Indian cricketer Abhishek Sharma, another filing shows.
For the record, Agilitas was founded in mid-2023 by the then core leadership team of Puma India, and is led by Abhishek Ganguly, erstwhile India and South-East Asia managing director of the German sportswear giant with a seed funding war chest of ₹470 crore. Alongside Ganguly are co-founders Atul Bajaj and Amit Prabhu (both also top tier Puma India alum)
In its first year, Agilitas raised ₹600 crore through Convergent Finance, Nexus Venture Partners, Spring Capital, and another ₹30 crore from individual investors, including Kohli’s ex-teammate Yuvraj Singh.
In the interim, Agilitas acquired sports footwear manufacturer Mochiko Shoes, India’s largest sports footwear manufacturer for the domestic market, for an undisclosed amount. Agilitas also secured the licensing rights for Lotto in India, South Asia and Australia, all of which align with their strategy to create an “insight led, consumer-centric, vertically integrated and agile” sportswear company.
Agilitas, meanwhile, is currently working with Kohli to scale One8, the premium athleisure brand he owns, and which has now expanded to include a chain of restaurants called One8 Commune and a collaboration with Puma for sneakers, as an independent global brand.
One8 was registered by Kohli in 2016 and post its collaboration with Puma under ‘Puma One8’ had reportedly cornered a business worth around ₹250 crore.
By the looks of it, Kohli is following a template successfully implemented by Roger Federer vis-a-vis his stake in Swiss athletic apparel company On, where the global tennis icon is its brand ambassador and co-creator.
Kohli and Agilitas’ shared vision is for One8 to become India’s first aspirational brand to go global with its footwear and sportswear.
