A multi-channel sports and fitness goods company that has touched rs. 14.5 Crore in revenue using snapdeal and flipkart as key channels. For riding the e-commerce boom, as an online seller and making the transition from traditional retail to online.
DIVYA M. CHANDRAMOULI
Sports365 (Live Sports365 Pvt. Ltd.) is a multi-channel fitness initiative formed through collaborations between India’s leading sporting icons and industry experts that offers sports infrastructure solutions to schools, colleges, sports clubs, academies and even corporates. The company also operates www.sports365.in, a sports and fitness focused portal which offers over 35,000 products and also functions as strategic seller on India’s leading marketplaces like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. According to founders, G.Chandra Sekhar Reddy and Aashutosh Chaudhari, the B2C and B2B businesses have great synergy across sourcing, brand engagement, customer acquisition and operations, and this allows the company to be capital efficient. Leveraging its multi-channel business plan, Sports365 also operates as an exclusive business partner in areas like business planning, marketing, distribution and customer engagement for sporting brands such as Hero Cycles, Mueller, V22, Spartan, Unicorn, Christys (Wimbledon Towels) and many more.
In a short span of two years, the Bengaluru-based company has close to 250 names on its clientele and has seen two rounds of investment; the first being in 2014 to the tune of US $200,000 from Powerhouse Ventures while the second round happened in 2015 where Powerhouse Ventures and Zolon Ventures invested US $1 million. At present, it is in talks with investors to raise an additional US $5 million to US $8 million to fund expansion plans.
In fiscal 2014-15, the company’s annual revenue was Rs. 14.5 crore up from the corresponding previous fiscal figure of Rs. 7.8 crore. Over the next three years, Sports365 wants to up annual revenue to US $20 million. The company also aims to establish a presence in five cities in India; Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi and Jalandhar. As for its ten-year vision, the company wants to be the first port of call for fitness, recreation and sports related needs globally.
Viewing employee impact: Employee concerns are resolved within 24-hours. The company follows a very flat work culture and employees are mentored directly by senior leadership and engagement programmes happen on a regular basis
Viewing social impact: Sports365 wants to lead sports development at the grassroots level and has partnered with organisations like Go Sports Foundation and India for Sports across initiatives including fund raisers, charity and athlete development
