When Bollywood Meets Sportswear: The Story No One Saw Coming
In December 2025, Virat Kohli — India’s most iconic cricketer — did something that surprised the entire sports and business world. After a decade-long, ₹110-crore association with German sportswear giant Puma, he walked away. Then, almost immediately, he invested ₹40 crore into a two-year-old Indian startup called Agilitas Sports, and handed it the keys to One8 — his personal sportswear brand.
People called it impulsive. Some called it a gamble. A few asked: why leave a global giant for a startup no one had heard of?
Now, five months later, there is an answer — and it comes in the form of another major name joining the cap table. Anushka Sharma, actor-producer and Kohli’s wife, has acquired a minority stake in Agilitas Sports. She will also co-develop the company’s yoga-wear range under the One8 brand — a product line set to launch on June 21, coinciding with International Day of Yoga.
This is not just a celebrity investment story. It is the story of how three former Puma India executives are building what they believe will be India’s answer to Nike, Adidas, and Puma — from the inside out. And how the Kohli-Sharma family is doubling down on that bet.
What Is Agilitas Sports? India’s Largest Vertically Integrated Sports Company
Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Bengaluru, Agilitas Sports describes itself as India’s largest vertically integrated sports company. That’s a bold claim — but one backed by an unusually comprehensive operating structure for a startup only in its third year.
Most consumer brands in India either manufacture or brand or retail. Agilitas does all three, simultaneously, under one roof — owning the entire value chain from raw material and factory floor to brand strategy and retail storefront.
End-to-end sports footwear and apparel manufacturing. Includes agilitas.lab — India’s first fully equipped R&D centre for sports footwear innovation. Also operates through acquired manufacturer Mochiko Shoes.
Builds and operates multiple sportswear brands — including One8 (Virat Kohli), Lotto (40-year licence for India, South Asia, Australia & South Africa), and future planned brand launches.
Direct-to-consumer retail expansion through both online and offline channels. Investing in offline presence as part of broader brand-building strategy across India.
This vertically integrated model — relatively rare in Indian sportswear — gives Agilitas structural advantages that pure brand or pure manufacturer players simply cannot match: tighter cost control, faster product development cycles, quality consistency, and the ability to react to market trends without depending on third-party partners at every link in the chain.
The Founders: Three Puma India Executives Who Bet on Themselves
Agilitas was not built by first-time founders or serial entrepreneurs pivoting from software. It was built by people who spent years running India’s most successful sportswear operation — and who understood, from the inside, exactly what it would take to build something better.
Former senior executive at Puma India. Brings deep expertise in product, merchandising, and go-to-market operations in Indian sportswear.
Former Puma India executive. Contributes operational expertise spanning supply chain, brand partnerships, and retail execution.
The founding team’s collective experience at Puma India is the single most important fact about Agilitas. They don’t need to figure out how sportswear brands are built in India. They built one of the most successful ones. They know the manufacturers, the retailers, the consumers, the influencers, and the supply chains — because they operated within them for years.
Abhishek Ganguly’s role deserves particular attention. As Puma India’s Managing Director, he oversaw the brand’s transformation from a relatively minor player into a dominant force in Indian sportswear and athleisure. Signing Virat Kohli to Puma was one of those moves. Now, at Agilitas, both he and Kohli are on the same side of the table — building rather than endorsing.
“Anushka is partnering with Agilitas by investing capital in the company and building yoga-wear.”
Abhishek Ganguly Co-Founder & CEO, Agilitas SportsAnushka Sharma’s Role: More Than Just a Famous Face
It is tempting to read this story as a celebrity riding on her husband’s investment. That would be a misreading. Anushka Sharma brings something specific and commercially valuable to Agilitas — something Kohli’s investment, for all its power, could not.
She brings the wellness consumer.
Virat Kohli is the face of performance — cricket, sport, athletic achievement, elite fitness. His audience skews toward performance sportswear, cricket fans, and the gym-going male demographic. Anushka Sharma occupies a different and overlapping space: yoga, wellness, mindful fitness, and the premium female consumer who is driving the fastest-growing segment of India’s activewear market.
By partnering with Anushka to co-develop One8 Yoga, Agilitas is not just adding a celebrity — it is expanding its total addressable market. It is reaching a category of consumer it did not have natural access to through Kohli alone.
This is the model Agilitas is clearly pursuing: not passive celebrity endorsement (the old Puma-Kohli model), but active celebrity co-ownership with skin in the game. When Anushka builds One8 Yoga, she’s building something she’s invested in — literally and figuratively. That authenticity is commercially powerful in ways that a paid endorsement deal simply cannot replicate.
“Excited to join Agilitas as an investor and begin this journey with one8. What drew me in was the intent, the ambition and the opportunity to build something meaningful. Looking forward to creating, learning and growing. More soon.”
📱 Anushka Sharma — Social Media Statement, May 30, 2026One8 Yoga: The New Category Launching June 21
Perhaps the most commercially interesting detail in the entire Anushka-Agilitas announcement is not the investment itself. It is the product that comes with it: One8 Yoga — a yoga-focused activewear category launching on June 21, 2026, International Day of Yoga.
The date is not accidental. International Day of Yoga, observed globally since 2015 following a United Nations resolution, is the single most powerful platform for a yoga-wear brand launch in the world. Hundreds of millions of people participate in yoga events across India and globally on June 21. The media and cultural attention on the day is enormous. For a new yoga-wear brand backed by one of India’s most recognisable actress-producers, the timing is strategically precise.
One8 was originally Virat Kohli’s personal sportswear brand — a lifestyle and athleisure label he built to extend his identity beyond cricket. When Agilitas acquired it in December 2025, the plan was always to evolve it from a single athlete’s brand into a broader sportswear and lifestyle platform with multiple categories and directions.
One8 Yoga is the first major signal of that evolution. It takes the brand into a category — yoga, mindfulness, wellness — that Kohli does not personally represent but that Anushka Sharma does, authentically and credibly. The brand umbrella expands without diluting Kohli’s core positioning.
Virat Kohli’s ₹40 Crore Move: The Deal Everyone Misread
To understand the full picture of the Anushka-Agilitas deal, you need to understand what Kohli did before it — because the two moves are part of the same strategic decision made by both of them together.
In 2025, Kohli ended his association with Puma — a partnership worth an estimated ₹110 crore — and joined Agilitas as a co-investor, shareholder, and brand collaborator. As part of that deal, he sold One8 to Agilitas while simultaneously investing ₹40 crore back into the company. He received 1.94% of Agilitas through special convertible shares.
- Invested ~₹40 crore (~$4.44M) in Agilitas
- Received 1.94% stake via special convertible shares
- Sold One8 brand to Agilitas as part of the deal
- Ended ₹110 crore Puma endorsement partnership
- Signed exclusivity — no Nike, Adidas or rival deals
- Became long-term investor, shareholder & brand collaborator
The conventional reading was that Kohli simply moved from one sportswear partner to another. The more accurate reading is that he fundamentally changed his relationship with the sportswear industry. He went from someone who lent his name to a brand in exchange for fees, to someone who owns a stake in the platform building the brand.
Platform-level upside instead of single-brand risk. His money and equity now grow with the entire Agilitas business — One8, Lotto, future acquisitions, manufacturing, retail — not just with one product line. And by signing an exclusivity clause, he ensured that his identity is fully aligned with Agilitas’ success, not shared across competing interests.
With Anushka now joining him as a co-investor, the Kohli-Sharma household has made Agilitas a genuine family business bet — with both parties contributing their distinct brand equity to different product categories and consumer segments.
Agilitas’ Growth Playbook: Acquire, Build, Scale
Celebrity investments make headlines. But Agilitas’ real growth engine is its aggressive acquisition strategy — systematically acquiring the capabilities, brands, and licences it needs to dominate Indian sportswear from every angle.
A contract manufacturer that produces footwear for Adidas, Puma, New Balance, Skechers, Reebok, Asics, Crocs, and Decathlon. Acquiring Mochiko gave Agilitas immediate, world-class manufacturing capability and an established order book serving global sportswear giants.
Virat Kohli’s sportswear and lifestyle brand, acquired as part of the Kohli investment deal. Provides Agilitas with an established consumer brand with high recognition among India’s cricket and fitness audience. Now being repositioned as a multi-category lifestyle platform including One8 Yoga.
Beyond acquisitions, Agilitas has secured the 40-year licence rights to the Lotto brand for India, South Asia, Australia, and South Africa. This gives the company another established global sportswear identity to build on — extending its brand portfolio strategy without the cost and time required to build a brand from scratch.
Why India’s Sportswear Market Is the Right Bet Right Now
Agilitas is not entering a niche. It is entering one of the fastest-growing consumer categories in one of the fastest-growing large economies in the world.
India’s sportswear market is at an inflection point. Rising incomes, rapid urbanisation, growing sports participation, and the explosion of fitness culture — accelerated by COVID-era health awareness — have all converged to make sportswear one of the highest-growth consumer categories in the country.
For decades, this market has been dominated by global brands — Nike, Adidas, Puma, Under Armour — that import both their products and their brand narratives from abroad. Agilitas is the first Indian attempt to build a globally competitive, vertically integrated sportswear challenger that is native to India — designed for Indian consumers, built on Indian manufacturing, and led by people who built the market they’re now disrupting.
The timing of the Anushka-Agilitas deal is also significant from a cultural standpoint. The yoga and wellness segment is growing sharply within India’s fitness economy, driven by female consumers in the 25–45 age bracket — exactly the demographic that Anushka reaches most credibly. One8 Yoga, launching on International Day of Yoga, is precisely positioned to capture that momentum at the moment it is highest.
Funding, Investors, and the ₹600 Crore Story
Despite being only three years old, Agilitas has raised one of the largest funding totals of any Indian consumer startup in the sportswear space — over ₹600 crore from a combination of institutional venture capital, strategic capital, and celebrity equity investors.
Institutional & Strategic Investors
Agilitas raised approximately ₹400 crore from Convergent Finance LLP (led by Harsha Raghavan) and ₹30 crore from individual investors. One of the largest seed-stage raises for a consumer startup in India at the time.
Nexus Venture Partners — one of India’s most prominent early-stage VCs — invested ₹100 crore, validating Agilitas’ platform model and growth trajectory.
Further capital raised from Spring Marketing Capital and SMLINE Ventures, strengthening the investor base and funding continued expansion of manufacturing, R&D, and retail capabilities.
Regulatory filings and investor disclosures placed Agilitas’ valuation at $235–240 million, with a further round under discussion at over $400 million valuation by March 2026.
The headline deal that transformed Agilitas’ brand story. Kohli invested ₹40 crore and received a 1.94% stake. Agilitas simultaneously acquired One8, adding a celebrity-linked consumer brand to its portfolio.
Anushka Sharma acquires a minority stake and commits to co-developing the One8 Yoga category. One8 Yoga is announced for launch on June 21, 2026 — International Day of Yoga.
One8 Yoga Launches June 21 — International Day of Yoga
India’s most ambitious sportswear startup is building in real time. Stay informed on every move.
Frequently Asked Questions
Anushka Sharma has acquired a minority stake in Agilitas Sports. The exact financial details and percentage of the stake have not been publicly disclosed by the company. Agilitas co-founder and CEO Abhishek Ganguly confirmed the investment but declined to share the transaction value. Sharma will also co-develop the One8 Yoga activewear category as part of the partnership.
One8 Yoga is a yoga-focused activewear category being developed under the One8 brand — the sportswear label that was founded by Virat Kohli and acquired by Agilitas Sports in December 2025. Anushka Sharma is co-creating the One8 Yoga range with the Agilitas team. The product line is scheduled to launch on June 21, 2026, coinciding with International Day of Yoga.
Agilitas Sports was founded in 2023 by Abhishek Ganguly (former Managing Director of Puma India), Atul Bajaj, and Amit Prabhu — all former senior executives at Puma India. Abhishek Ganguly led Puma India’s growth into one of the brand’s most important global markets. The founding team’s deep industry experience is a core strategic advantage for the company.
Virat Kohli invested approximately ₹40 crore (around $4.44 million) in Agilitas Sports in 2025, receiving a 1.94% minority stake through special convertible shares. This investment was made as part of a broader deal that also saw Agilitas acquire Kohli’s One8 sportswear brand. Kohli also signed an exclusivity agreement, committing to no partnerships with competing sportswear brands.
As of May 2026, Agilitas Sports has raised over ₹600 crore from investors including Nexus Venture Partners, Convergent Finance LLP, Spring Marketing Capital, SMLINE Ventures, and Infinity Direct Holding — alongside celebrity investors Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma. The company was valued at approximately $235–240 million in April 2025, with reports suggesting a higher valuation round in progress in 2026.
Agilitas currently operates the One8 brand (acquired from Virat Kohli in December 2025) and holds a 40-year licence for the Lotto brand across India, South Asia, Australia, and South Africa. The company has also acquired Mochiko Shoes (a contract manufacturer for Adidas, Puma, New Balance, Skechers, Reebok, Asics, Crocs, and Decathlon) as part of its manufacturing pillar. Additional brand launches are planned as part of a multi-brand portfolio strategy.
Kohli ended his ₹110-crore association with Puma in 2025 and chose to invest in Agilitas — a company founded by his former Puma India colleagues. Rather than remaining as a paid brand ambassador, he became an equity partner and co-investor. This move gave him platform-level upside across the entire Agilitas business (not just One8), plus alignment with a homegrown Indian brand building with global ambitions. He also signed an exclusivity clause, cementing full alignment with Agilitas going forward.
The Bigger Picture: Building India’s First Global Sportswear Brand
Anushka Sharma’s investment in Agilitas is the latest chapter in a story that is really about something much larger than any single celebrity deal or product launch.
India has never produced a globally competitive sportswear brand. Not one that owns its manufacturing, builds its brands, controls its retail, and competes directly with Nike, Adidas, and Puma on quality, design, and innovation. That has always been done to India by global brands — not from India by Indian companies.
Agilitas is the most serious attempt to change that. Founded by people who know the industry from the inside. Backed by over ₹600 crore from institutional and strategic investors. Owning world-class manufacturing through Mochiko. Building India’s first sports footwear R&D lab. Holding a 40-year licence on Lotto. Owning One8 with Virat Kohli as a co-invested partner. And now adding Anushka Sharma — and the yoga and wellness consumer — to its brand ecosystem.
The June 21 launch of One8 Yoga will be the first public test of whether this celebrity co-creation model delivers on its commercial promise. If it does, it will not just validate Agilitas’ strategy. It will signal that India’s sportswear revolution has genuinely begun.
Agilitas Sports: Founded 2023 by ex-Puma India executives · Vertically integrated: Manufacturing + Brands + Retail · ₹600 Cr+ raised · Owns One8 + Lotto licence + Mochiko Shoes
Virat Kohli: ₹40 crore invested · 1.94% stake · Sold One8 to Agilitas · Exclusive long-term partner and brand collaborator
