Cricketers who invested in startups in 2022

It is not too difficult to imagine that now Bollywood, Cricket and Entertainment are spoken in the same breath.

Our country loves some mirch-masala sprinkled with a Virat Kohli century here or there.

But what’s interesting to see is the foray of cricketers into the world of entrepreneurship. 

Gone are the days when cricketers were just cricketers. Many have made a successful side business of becoming influencers. With big money pouring in, many have started investing in startups!

Here is a list of a few cricketers who have invested in startups in 2022:

🏏Anil Kumble: The veteran cricketer, coach and commentator has made an investment in health insurance startup Onsurity this year

🏏KL Rahul: He has recently stepped into the startup ecosystem. This year, the cricketer has put money into two startups – XYXX and MetaMan. XYXX Apparels is a men’s innerwear apparel startup and Metaman provides jewellery for men

🏏MS Dhoni: Captain cool (Maybe now he should be called investor cool) pumped money into two super cool startups – Shaka Harry and Garuda Aerospace Private Limited Aerospace. Shaka Harry has plant-based meat and Garuda is building customisable drones 

🏏Sachin Tendulkar: The Little master backed NFT platform RARIO that allows cricket fans to buy and trade cricket NFTs

🏏Shikhar Dhawan: Gabbar (now a full-fledged entrepreneur) has backed the stock trading platform Upstox

🏏Virat Kohli: He is a firm believer in the Indian startup ecosystem! he funded two D2C startups – Rage Coffee and Blue Tribe Foods 

One thing is evident from the list – most of the startups being backed by cricketers have nothing to do with cricket. What seems exciting to them is where they are putting their resources.

It might be interesting to see if one of them gets a healthy exit, more than an IPL cheque maybe!

#entrepreneurship #startups #cricket