The seed funding round was co-led by Centre Court Capital and MIXI Global, with participation from WEH Ventures
The startup plans to use the capital to launch its first set of flagship stores and its pan-India ecommerce platform
Founded in 2025 by former GMR Sports’ CEO Satyam Trivedi and former Cult.fit’s executive Jayam Vora, PlayBlue is an omnichannel multi-brand sports retail platform
Sports retail startup PlayBlue has secured $2.7 Mn (₹25.7 Cr) in a seed funding round co-led by Centre Court Capital and MIXI Global, with participation from WEH Ventures.
The startup plans to use the capital to launch its first set of flagship stores and its pan-India ecommerce platform. It plans to set up a network of 150 stores over the next five years and build a community of more than 1 Cr users.
Founded in 2025 by former GMR Sports’ CEO Satyam Trivedi and former Cult.fit’s executive Jayam Vora, PlayBlue is an omnichannel multi-brand sports retail platform that sells an assortment of athleisure, footwear, gear, fitness equipment, recovery products and nutrition through its retail stores and ecommerce platform.
The startup has set a target of reaching ₹100 Cr in revenue and with ambitions of operational profitability by its next capital raise.
Explaining the market share, Vora said, “India’s sports and active lifestyle market is expected to cross $30 Bn by 2035, and the country will need more than 15,000 new sports retail touchpoints to serve it.”
PlayBlue has entered the market in competition with bigger brands like Decathlon and emerging labels like SportsJam, Heelium, Agilitas and many others in the market.
The development comes at a time when investor interest in the sports segment has been on an upward trend. Investors are also encouraged to back sports-based brands to help their business expansion in the past few months.
For context, PlayBlue’s seed round lead investor, Centre Court Capital recently closed its maiden fund at ₹410 Cr, surpassing the initial target corpus of ₹350 Cr.
Overall, the Indian sports market is projected to more than double to $130 Bn by FY30 from $52 Bn in FY24, according to a joint Google and Deloitte report.
Source: Inc42 - Startups
