When news broke that Virat Kohli had turned down a Rs 300 crore renewal offer from Puma, the cricketing world reacted with the kind of disbelief usually reserved for a run-out off the last ball. Why would anyone walk away from that kind of money? But scratch beneath the surface, and this is probably the most calculated business decision of Kohli’s post-cricket pivot.
To understand the gamble, you have to understand the math. Kohli’s partnership with Puma began in 2017, when he signed a then-record ₹110 crore deal to launch One8, a lifestyle brand under the Puma umbrella. And the plan worked. Over the years, One8 grew to become a ₹250 crore business in the athleisure segment, powered by Kohli’s influence both on and off the field. That’s the brand strength in numbers: a fee that nearly tripled, and a business line that scaled from launch to a quarter-thousand-crore footprint, riding almost entirely on Kohli’s name and reach as a personal brand.
But here’s the thing about being a brand ambassador, however successful: you’re still renting out your face. Kohli is prioritizing equity and entrepreneurial ownership rather than endorsement fees, and that single sentence captures the entire logic of the walk-away. Instead of taking another fee for lending his image to someone else’s company, Kohli has chosen to invest in Agilitas Sports, which is an Indian sportswear startup. Instead of just lending his name to a product, Kohli is trying to build and shape a brand from the ground.
The numbers behind this new venture validate the bet quickly. He reportedly invested Rs 40 crore in Agilitas Sports, becoming a minority shareholder, partnering with Abhishek Ganguly, who spent 17 years at Puma and knows the sportswear business from the inside. As of June 2025, Agilitas Sports is valued at Rs 2,058 crore. Run the math, and a 40-crore stake in a 2,000-plus-crore company starts to look a lot smarter than a one-time 300-crore cheque that ends the day the contract does.
This is where brand strength matters most. Kohli’s pull is all about building a brand from the ground up, using his sheer will and pull. Under Agilitas, One8 will expand beyond apparel into performance-focused footwear, accessories, and wellness products, with plans underway to open exclusive stores and aggressively scale e-commerce. And Kohli will own a piece of all of that.
And he’s not alone in spotting this shift. Global athletes like Roger Federer had become a stakeholder in the Swiss footwear brand On, rather than just a brand ambassador. The smartest names in sport have quietly stopped asking “what’s my fee” and started asking “what’s my equity.”
Walking away from Rs 300 crore takes nerve. Walking toward an unproven Indian startup with your own money takes conviction. Kohli has both in spades, and the early numbers suggest he read the moment better than anyone betting against him.
