India Deserves Its Own Nike. Agilitas Sports Is Building It.
For most of his career, Abhishek Ganguly made global sportswear brands successful in India. As Managing Director of Puma India and Southeast Asia, he helped turn a European brand into one of the most loved sportswear labels in the country — growing it from a niche player to a mainstream giant. He understood Indian consumers, Indian retail, and Indian manufacturing better than almost anyone in the business.
Then, in 2023, he walked away — and started building something of his own.
"We started Agilitas with a simple but ambitious belief — India deserves a sportswear company that can build across the entire value chain, from manufacturing and product creation to brands and retail," Ganguly said. That belief just attracted ₹225 crore from two of India's most respected investment names — and the story is only getting started.
What Agilitas Sports Actually Is
Most sportswear companies in India are either brands without factories or factories without brands. Agilitas is deliberately building both — simultaneously — under one integrated platform. That vertical integration is the core of its competitive strategy and the reason investors keep writing larger cheques.
Founded in 2023 by Abhishek Ganguly, Atul Bajaj, and Amit Prabhu, Agilitas operates across sports footwear, apparel, and accessories — combining R&D, design, manufacturing, and retail under a single ecosystem. The company acquired Mochiko Shoes in 2023 — a sports footwear manufacturer that already produces shoes for global giants like Adidas and Puma — giving Agilitas a world-class manufacturing base from day one.
That manufacturing foundation means Agilitas can move faster, respond to consumer demand more quickly, and protect margins more effectively than any brand-only competitor. When you own the factory, you control the product — and when you control the product, you control the brand.
The Virat Kohli Connection
Every great Indian sportswear story needs a moment that makes the world take notice. For Agilitas, that moment came when Virat Kohli — India's most commercially valuable cricketer and one of the world's most recognisable sports personalities — transferred his sports and lifestyle brand One8 to the company and invested ₹40 crore personally.
One8 isn't just a celebrity endorsement deal. It's a brand with an existing consumer base, a clear aesthetic identity, and the most powerful sports personality in India behind it. For Agilitas, acquiring One8 gives it a premium consumer brand with instant recognition — while Kohli's personal investment aligns his interests directly with the company's success.
It's also a signal. When athletes of Kohli's stature put personal capital into a company rather than simply licensing their name, it tells the market something about how seriously that company is being taken.
The ₹225 Crore Round
The latest funding round comprises a ₹200 crore follow-on investment from Nexus Venture Partners — one of India's most respected institutional investors, doubling down on a bet it first made in December 2023 — and ₹25 crore from Rainmatter, Zerodha's long-term startup funding arm run by Nithin Kamath. The participation of Rainmatter is notable: Kamath has been increasingly vocal about India's need for homegrown manufacturing champions, and Agilitas fits squarely within that thesis.
Abhishek Ganguly was unusually direct about why the company is raising: "There is absolutely no dearth of interest from capital partners. I am not raising capital to keep the business afloat." That confidence comes from a company that crossed ₹1,015 crore in consolidated revenue in FY25 — up from ₹728 crore the previous year — a 39% growth rate that tells a clear story of momentum.
The fresh ₹225 crore will be deployed across product research and development, design capabilities, manufacturing capacity expansion, retail growth, technology, talent acquisition, and brand building. Every rupee has a job — and every job builds toward the billion-dollar revenue target Ganguly has publicly committed to.
Sportsyard — The Retail Play That Changes the Game
Alongside its owned brands, Agilitas is building Sportsyard — a large-format multi-brand retail chain that houses Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Asics, Puma, and Skechers under one roof. Think of it as a premium sports retail experience — the kind that India's tier-1 and tier-2 cities are crying out for.
The first Sportsyard store in Bengaluru became profitable within two months of launch — a remarkable milestone for a physical retail concept in the post-pandemic era. Ten more stores are planned for the current financial year. If each replicates that Bengaluru trajectory, Sportsyard alone could become a significant revenue engine — while giving Agilitas's owned brands premium placement alongside the world's biggest names.
The company also holds exclusive long-term licensing rights to manufacture and distribute the Lotto sportswear brand across India, Australia, and South Africa — adding an internationally recognised Italian brand to its portfolio alongside One8. And it expects ecommerce — through marketplaces and its own digital channels — to contribute 25 to 30% of overall revenue, building the digital layer on top of its physical retail foundation.
Why India's Sportswear Market Is Ready for This
The timing could not be better. India's sportswear and athleisure market is experiencing a structural transformation driven by rising health consciousness, a fitness culture that has moved from niche to mainstream, the global shift toward casualwear as daily wear, and a growing middle class with genuine spending power on lifestyle products.
Ganguly described it plainly: people are wearing sportswear across multiple occasions — schools, offices, airports, parties. The market has expanded far beyond sport itself. Sneakers are fashion. Athleisure is everyday wear. And in that expanded market, a company that controls manufacturing, owns compelling brands, and builds great retail experiences has an extraordinary opportunity.
India currently imports the vast majority of its premium sportswear from global brands. Agilitas is betting that with the right manufacturing, the right brands, and the right retail — India can build its own.
A billion dollars in revenue. A full-stack platform. And the ex-boss of Puma at the wheel.
India's sportswear story is just warming up.
