With every boundary hit on the IPL ground, another parallel score ratchets up off the field. Indian cricketers have long been splashed on billboards as brand ambassadors, but today they are increasingly showing up on startup cap tables, backing everything from gaming and smart-home technology to medical tourism and sports-tech platforms.

From Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni to Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah, the country’s biggest cricketing names are steadily building their investor portfolios alongside their sporting career. According to market intelligence platform Tracxn, funding for cricketer-backed startups peaked at $267.1 million in 2021, with cumulative funding since crossing $338.5 million.

Beyond just visibility, the sport stars are sought after for factors such as trust, strategic access and long-term association with brands, according to startup founders and investors.

So you have medical tourism startup The Medical Travel Company (TMTC), which counts English cricketers Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer among its backers, alongside India’s KL Rahul. The company, which recently raised $4.5 million in seed funding, works with hospital chains such as Apollo, Max Healthcare, Medanta and Fortis to streamline medical travel between the UK and India.

“Healthcare is a very high-trust business. Trust doesn’t come easily, especially when you are building a completely new market,” says Ankit Mehrotra, co-founder of TMTC.

The presence of globally recognised athletes helped the company establish credibility not just with consumers but also hospitals, doctors and institutions like the NHS in the UK, Mehrotra says.

“Having reputed international athletes on the cap table changes the conversation. It signals trust,” he says. With the cricketers it was a natural fit because many international players spend months in India during the IPL season and are familiar with the country’s healthcare ecosystem, he adds.

Founders also say the tie-ups with cricketers increasingly go beyond marketing contracts.

Gaming startup LightFury Games, backed by Jasprit Bumrah, is building eCricket, a hyper-realistic cricket title powered by Unreal Engine 5 and featuring more than 600 licensed players. “Brand visibility is naturally one outcome of such partnerships with athletes, but the bigger value lies in the credibility and trust these associations help build across stakeholders,” says Karan Shroff, co-founder and chief executive of LightFury Games.

While the celebrity investors are not involved in operational decisions, founders say they contribute during strategy discussions and product-related decisions.

For Bumrah, what mattered was the startup’s focus on authenticity and attention to detail.

“Cricket is a game of fine margins, and that’s what stood out to me about eCricket. The focus on detail and authenticity is impressive,” Bumrah says. “I’m happy to back a team that is thinking deeply about the sport and building something meaningful from India.”

Sweat capital

KL Rahul, who has invested in smart-home technology brand Qubo, says he looks for genuine product alignment before backing a company. “For me, it starts with the product. I need to genuinely believe in what the company is building and ideally be a user myself,” Rahul tells businessline.

He favours founders who are focused on building sustainable businesses. “I’d rather back founders who are quietly building something solid than those chasing headlines,” he says.

This shift in thinking also influences how athletes engage with startups after investing.

“If I’m putting my name and faith behind something, I want to understand how the business is doing, where it’s headed and what challenges it is facing,” Rahul says. “When people see me associated with a brand, they know it’s not just transactional.”

Qubo co-founder Nikhil Rajpal says Rahul and his wife, actor Athiya Shetty, maintain direct interaction with the company on strategic matters and actively use the products themselves.

“This isn’t a hands-off financial bet for them,” Rajpal says “They are actual users of the products, and that makes their inputs sharper and more actionable.”

A taste of operations

In the case of Jatin Paranjape, the former India cricketer stepped out of the crease to take a shot at building a startup himself.

Paranjape founded sports aggregator platform KheloMore in 2018 to improve access to sports infrastructure, coaching, and grassroots training across India. It helps users discover and book sports venues, academies, and coaches.

“For the next two to three years, I want to remain an operator,” Paranjape says, “but eventually, I also want to build a sports-focused investment fund.” Conceding that his cricketing background helped open doors during fundraising conversations, he however stresses that operational execution remains the real differentiator.

“Building executive acumen and vision takes time,” he points out. “As the ecosystem evolves, we will see many more athlete-founders emerge.”

Beyond celeb factor

Brand experts, however, caution that celebrity association alone cannot guarantee startup success.

“Cricketer-backed startups will get disproportionate media attention initially, but, ultimately, business performance decides whether funding sustains,” says brand strategist Harish Bijoor.

He sees athletes today moving beyond the role of external endorsers to becoming stakeholders with “skin in the game”. “Consumers are tired of traditional celebrity endorsements. When athletes participate through sweat equity or ownership, trust becomes a much stronger currency,” he says.

At the same time, he warns that the model could eventually become cluttered if celebrities participate only for short-term visibility.

“I am yet to see athletes consistently backing startups with a truly long-term, institution-building mindset,” he says.

Founders believe the equation has already evolved beyond quick endorsements and short-term exits. Mehrotra of TMTC says athletes increasingly recognise the long-term wealth creation potential of startups and want to participate in that journey.

“They are not chasing a quick buck,” he says. “They understand that real value gets created over the long term, when a company scales up from $10 million to $100 million and beyond.”

As India’s startup ecosystem matures alongside the rising commercial power of cricket, athletes are padding up to play a new innings — a potent blend of equity, influence and entrepreneurship.

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Published on May 11, 2026