Brands owned by Indian cricketers now span drones, plant-based meat, fashion and gyms, not just bat and ball endorsements.
Published: [October 04, 2026]
StartupFeed Quick Take
- Virat Kohli sold One8 to Agilitas Sports in December 2025, then put Rs 40 crore back in for a 1.94% stake.
- MS Dhoni owns a 1.1% stake in Garuda Aerospace, which won SEBI’s nod for a Rs 750 crore IPO in August 2026.
- Across four athletes, most stakes stay small: 1% to 18%, bought early and held for years.
In This Article
- Brands Owned by Indian Cricketers: the 2026 Picture
- Virat Kohli: One8, Wrogn and the Agilitas Switch
- MS Dhoni: Garuda Aerospace, Seven and SportsFit
- Sachin Tendulkar: True Blue, Smaaash and Exits
- PV Sindhu: the New Investor on the List
- About Athlete-Owned Brands in India
- Before You Trust a Celebrity Brand: a Checklist
Brands Owned by Indian Cricketers: the 2026 Picture
The list of brands owned by Indian cricketers has changed a lot in the last year. Two shifts stand out. Kohli sold his flagship One8 brand. Dhoni’s biggest bet moved toward the stock market.
Ownership here means an equity stake or a founder role, not a paid endorsement. A player who fronts an ad does not own the company. A player who holds shares does.
Most of these stakes are small. They range from about 1% to 18%. The players bought in early and held for years. That is the pattern across all four names below.
The table sets out the main owned ventures. Endorsement-only deals, like a bat or a soft drink, are left out on purpose.
| Cricketer | Main owned venture | Sector | Stake or role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | Agilitas Sports (One8) | Sportswear | 1.94% stake |
| MS Dhoni | Garuda Aerospace | Drones | 1.1% stake |
| Sachin Tendulkar | Smaaash Entertainment | Gaming venues | 18% stake |
| PV Sindhu | Hoop, KiranaPro, Greenday | Wellness, retail | Investor |
Virat Kohli: One8, Wrogn and the Agilitas Switch
Virat Kohli owns the widest brand portfolio of any Indian cricketer. His biggest move came in December 2025. He sold One8, his sportswear and lifestyle label, to Agilitas Sports.
Kohli did not simply cash out. An Entrepreneur India report on the deal says he put Rs 40 crore back into Agilitas in his personal capacity. That makes him an investor and a co-founder of the One8 line under its new owner.
Regulatory filings with the corporate affairs ministry show the shape of that bet. Kohli took a 1.94% stake in Agilitas through compulsorily convertible preference shares. At that price the deal valued Agilitas at about Rs 2,062 crore.
Abhishek Ganguly, who runs Agilitas, explained why Kohli chose the parent over the brand.
“Virat is no longer just a part of One8. He takes One8 home to Agilitas.”
Abhishek Ganguly, chief executive, Agilitas Sports. From the company statement, December 2025.
The Agilitas tie began in 2017. Ganguly, then head of Puma India, signed Kohli for a deal worth about Rs 110 crore. Kohli ended that Puma link in April 2025 after turning down a renewal.
Kohli also co-created Wrogn, a youth fashion brand run through Universal Sportsbiz. He has since stepped back from it. His other equity bets include plant-based meat maker Blue Tribe, backed with his wife Anushka Sharma, and insurer Digit, which has listed.
MS Dhoni: Garuda Aerospace, Seven and SportsFit
MS Dhoni’s most valuable holding is in a drone company. He owns a 1.1% stake in Garuda Aerospace, the Chennai firm founded by Agnishwar Jayaprakash in 2015. Business Standard has reported the stake size.
That bet is close to a payday. Garuda Aerospace won SEBI’s approval for an initial public offering in August 2026, per Inc42’s IPO tracker. The planned issue is a fresh sale of up to Rs 750 crore plus an offer for sale.
The company’s numbers back the listing. Garuda reported operating revenue of Rs 123.5 crore in FY25, up 12%. Net profit rose 41% to Rs 18.4 crore. In the first half of FY26 it made Rs 11 crore in profit on Rs 41.2 crore in revenue.
Dhoni backed Garuda in 2022 and later raised his holding. Its April 2025 Series B round, led by Venture Catalysts, drew Rs 100 crore and set the value at $250 million.
Dhoni’s older ventures sit in fitness and fashion. He co-owns SportsFit World, a gym chain with more than 200 centres across India. He co-founded craft drinks maker 7InkBrews, which trades as Copter7, named after his jersey number.
His athleisure brand Seven changed hands too. In January 2026, South Korean brand Fila bought a 51% controlling stake in the company that owns Seven. The all-cash deal was valued at 26.8 million euros.
Sachin Tendulkar: True Blue, Smaaash and Exits
Sachin Tendulkar was investing in brands long before it was common. In 2016 he co-founded True Blue, a menswear label, with Arvind Fashions. The brand still sits inside Arvind’s stable.
His largest single stake is in Smaaash Entertainment, the gaming and virtual-reality venue chain. Tendulkar holds 18% of the company, which he first backed in 2013.
He has spread smaller bets across digital names. In 2021 he put $2 million into gaming firm JetSynthesys. That deal grew out of 100MB, a cricket app the two built together.
Some of those bets have now paid out. The deal-tracker Tracxn lists four Tendulkar exits. Two came in 2026: tutoring platform Unacademy was acquired in March, and lender Kissht listed on the market in May.
Tendulkar also runs SRT Sports Management with his wife Anjali. Other past bets include used-car platform Spinny and IoT maker Smartron, whose branded phone carried his name.
PV Sindhu: the New Investor on the List
PV Sindhu is the clearest sign that this is no longer a cricket-only club. The badminton star has built a small portfolio of startup stakes since 2024.
Her bets cluster in consumer and retail. In 2024 she joined Gurugram wellness brand Hoop as an investor and ambassador. Business Standard reported she also holds a stake in Azad Engineering, an aerospace parts maker.
Sindhu has leaned into retail technology too. In early 2025 she made the first commitment in the seed round of KiranaPro, an AI-led quick-commerce platform built on the ONDC network. Inc42 reported the deal, though the amount stayed private.
Her most recent disclosed cheque was for Greenday, a seed-stage firm, in April 2025. Sindhu picks founders and vision over sector, she said when announcing the Hoop deal.
The common thread across all four athletes is restraint. They take minority stakes, hold them, and let a few turn into exits or public listings. The payday is slow, not loud.
What this means for you: If you run an early-stage consumer or sports brand, a sports celebrity can be a cap-table investor, not just an ad face. Offer equity and a founder role, as Agilitas did with Kohli, to win a long-term backer.
About Athlete-Owned Brands in India
An athlete-owned brand is a company in which a sportsperson holds equity or a founder role, not just an endorsement fee. In India these cluster in sportswear, fashion, food, fitness and startups. Stakes are usually small, bought early, and held for years. A listing or acquisition, like Garuda’s planned IPO, is how the value finally shows up.
Before You Trust a Celebrity Brand: a Checklist
A famous face does not prove a famous person owns the company. Use this quick checklist before you assume ownership.
- Check for an equity stake, not just an ad deal. Only a shareholding counts as ownership.
- Look for the stake size in filings. Most athlete stakes are 1% to 18%, not control.
- Watch for a sale. Kohli sold One8; the brand now belongs to Agilitas.
- Note founder versus investor. A co-founder shapes the brand; an investor just holds shares.
- Track listings and buyouts. Garuda’s IPO and the Fila-Seven deal change who owns what.
StartupFeed Insight
The headline story is not how many brands these players own. It is how the value turns real. For a decade, athlete stakes sat quiet on cap tables. Now the exits are arriving at once: Kohli’s One8 sale, Fila’s buyout of Seven, Tendulkar’s Unacademy and Kissht exits, and Dhoni’s Garuda IPO. Watch Garuda’s listing closely. If it prices well, expect a fresh wave of Indian founders to hand athletes equity instead of a flat fee, with the first such deals likely signed through 2027.
By Saraswati Chaubey, Writer
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