Bengaluru-based Michezo Sports activities has raised $2.5 million (round Rs 21 crore) in a pre-Sequence A funding spherical led by Centre Court docket Capital, a enterprise capital agency targeted on sports activities and gaming, with participation from Rainmatter, the funding arm of Zerodha.

Based in 2019 by former skilled tennis participant Maharishi Sridhar, Michezo claims to have accomplished greater than 350 initiatives for over 175 shoppers throughout the nation. The startup designs, builds, and maintains sports activities services that it claims meet world requirements set by federations similar to FIFA, FIH, ITF, and World Athletics.

Its portfolio contains athletic tracks, soccer and hockey pitches, badminton, squash, basketball, and volleyball courts, in addition to padel and pickleball arenas put in in membership services, instructional establishments, and real-estate developments.

The startup plans to make use of the recent capital to broaden into new infrastructure verticals, similar to swimming swimming pools and public-sports services, and to strengthen its distribution platform for sports activities development supplies and tools. It’s also exploring public-private partnerships to assist state governments develop accessible community-level sports activities infrastructure.

“As a former skilled tennis participant, I skilled the distinction in good sports activities infrastructure made to an athlete’s journey, and the frustration when it was inaccessible. The trade immediately stays largely casual and fragmented. Michezo was based with the long-term imaginative and prescient to convey player-centricity, professionalism, formal group, and governance to a sector that has remained on the sidelines of India’s progress story,” mentioned Maharishi Sridhar.

Nithin Kamath, Founder and CEO, Rainmatter, mentioned, “Sports activities is a approach to construct a more healthy India, and for that, we’d like extra sports activities infrastructure that’s accessible and accessible to all. We imagine infrastructure is the spine of any sporting tradition, and now’s the second to construct it proper.”