{"id":51754,"date":"2026-05-12T10:43:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=51754"},"modified":"2026-05-12T10:58:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:28:54","slug":"from-pumas-poster-boy-to-co-founder-how-virat-kohli-rewrote-his-entire-business-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/cricket\/from-pumas-poster-boy-to-co-founder-how-virat-kohli-rewrote-his-entire-business-story\/","title":{"rendered":"From brand ambassador to co-founder: how Virat Kohli turned down \u20b9300 crore and built something far bigger"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<h2>The \u20b9300 crore offer he said no to<\/h2>\n<p>In April 2025, Virat Kohli did something that stunned Indian boardrooms: he walked away from a \u20b9300 crore renewal offer from Puma \u2014 one of the largest endorsement contracts ever offered to an Indian athlete. Eight months later, the reason became clear. In December 2025, Kohli invested \u20b940 crore into Agilitas Sports, a sportswear startup led by former Puma India MD Abhishek Ganguly, selling One8 to the company and joining as co-founder and equity holder. It was a deliberate pivot from famous face to actual cap-table participant.<\/p>\n<h2>One8 is now a global sportswear play<\/h2>\n<p>One8 \u2014 originally born as an internet-first lifestyle label in partnership with Puma \u2014 had already grown into a full ecosystem. The dining arm, One8 Commune, expanded to over 16 outlets across Indian cities, cementing itself as a real hospitality business. Under Agilitas, the brand is being repositioned as a premium performance sportswear label, with global rollout planned across the US, UK, and Australia within 12\u201315 months of the restructuring.<\/p>\n<h2>A portfolio built on ownership, not just logos<\/h2>\n<p>Kohli\u2019s consumer business doesn\u2019t begin and end with One8. He co-created Wrogn, a men\u2019s fashion brand under Universal Sportsbiz, where he holds a significant stake alongside founder Anjana Reddy. He also holds a 12% equity stake in FC Goa, one of the most visible examples of a cricketer owning into another sport\u2019s franchise. Earlier investments include \u20b92.2 crore in Digit Insurance and \u20b919.3 crore in Universal Sportsbiz in 2020, alongside bets in plant-based food, coffee, and sports-tech startups.<\/p>\n<h2>What the Agilitas deal really means<\/h2>\n<p>The arc is now unmistakable: a decade of converting star power into real ownership. The Agilitas deal is the clearest expression of that thesis \u2014 not a brand ambassador contract, but a founder equity position in a company building the next generation of Indian sportswear. As Agilitas prepares its international rollout, Kohli\u2019s business identity travels with it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pull-quote\">\u201cVirat is no longer just a part of One8. He is now an investor and shareholder in the company. \u2014 Abhishek Ganguly, CEO, Agilitas Sports\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The \u20b9300 crore offer he said no to In April 2025, Virat Kohli did something that stunned Indian boardrooms: he\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5463,3923,5462],"class_list":["post-51754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket","tag-one8-commune","tag-virat-kohli","tag-virat-kohli-businesses"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51754"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51757,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51754\/revisions\/51757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}