PVL is an Indian Premier League (IPL)-like tournament with about eight teams based out of Bengaluru, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and others. For Bengaluru Torpedoes—the local team—Ankit Nagori, founder of cloud kitchen startup Curefoods, who was previously a senior executive at Flipkart, is one of its key owners. While Nagori owns just below 50% in the team, Bansal will own around 10% once the deal goes through while the rest is owned by sports management firm Baseline Ventures.
The entrepreneur-turned-investor, sources said, is picking up about 10% stake in the firm for about Rs 10 crore, valuing the team at about Rs 100 crore. Last year, PhonePe founders Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari picked up the Mumbai franchise of the Prime Volleyball League, named Mumbai Meteors.
Bansal’s investment in Bengaluru Torpedoes comes at a time when non-cricket tournaments are also catching up in India. According to reports citing BARC data, PVL’s viewership grew by over 50% to 206 million.
ETtech“He (Binny) is keen to pick a stake in the Bangalore franchise as the owners believe there would be much more value to the league going forward,” a person aware of the discussions said.
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When contacted, Nagori declined to comment while an email sent to Bansal did not elicit any response.
Bansal’s big bets
In April, Bansal’s Three State Ventures invested Rs 240 crore in Nagori’s Curefoods in a funding round, including primary and secondary investments. He held about 5% in Curefoods but his stake has now inched up to over 12% post the investment. Bansal is also taking a big bet on PhonePe where he is looking to invest as much as $100-150 million, ET reported in March.
Bansal, who moved to Singapore after leaving Flipkart in 2018, has been an angel and early-stage backer in Indian startups, but he also doubles down on select bets investing through later stages as well. He is on the board of firms like PhonePe and Curefoods.
His investments are through different entities such as the Singapore-headquartered Three State Ventures; 021 Capital, a fund founded by Bansal’s financial advisor Sailesh Tulshan where he is the largest sponsor; as well as xto10x Technologies, which he founded along with former Flipkart senior executive Saikiran Krishnamurthy. Bansal led a $25 million funding round in xto10x in 2022. His other portfolio firms include electric scooter maker Ather Energy, urban mobility startup Yulu, lending platform Rupeek and insurance startup Acko.
The IIT Delhi alumunus had plans to launch his own fund but that did not materialise. He sold a part of his holding in Flipkart for about $200 million, ET reported in December 2021. This capital has also been used by Bansal for his investments. He still owns around 1.8% in the Walmart-owned ecommerce firm.
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