Neel AcharyBangalore, Nov 27: SFL (Sports for Life), one of India’s fastest‑growing multi‑sport youth development platforms, has raised ₹21.57 crore in a Series A round led by Fireside Ventures and Genesia Ventures, with participation from existing investors Roots Ventures, TDV Partners, and others. The investment marks a pivotal milestone in SFL’s mission to build a trusted, structured, and high‑quality grassroots sports ecosystem for children across India. Anchored in coaching excellence and competition at scale, SFL’s technology stack is designed to deliver transparency, progress tracking, and robust safeguarding creating measurable value for athletes, parents, and coaches.
Co-founded by Sourjyendu Medda & Armaan Tandon, SFL’s integrated model spans academies, leagues, and a technology layer that personalises development pathways. The company’s AI‑first performance platform captures training and match data to surface personalised learning plans, progress dashboards, and decision support for coaches. Its product roadmap includes computer‑vision powered livestreaming, automated highlights, and match analytics to create objective feedback loops for players and parents alike. Communication tools, attendance and progress logs, and incident reporting workflows further enhance trust and accountability, while a modular, multi‑sport operating system ensures consistent quality as SFL scales across cities and venues.
The new capital will be deployed to enter additional geographies, expand best‑in‑class multi‑sport academies, strengthen coaching capabilities, add new sports, and deepen the technology platform with richer performance insights, livestreaming, communication features, and monitoring systems. The company’s focus remains on delivering quality, consistency, and safety at scale as it grows access to structured youth sports across neighbourhoods in India.
“With our existing investors, Fireside and Genesia by our side, we’re building a youth sports ecosystem that families can trust for the next decade not just the next season,” said Sourjyendu Medda, Co‑founder & CEO, SFL. “This investment helps us bring structured, high‑quality sports closer to every neighborhood and to every child who deserves a chance to play, learn, and grow while keeping quality, consistency, and safety at the core.”
Investor partners underscored their conviction in SFL’s direction and impact. “India has a clear and pressing need for structured, high‑quality grassroots sports programs, and SFL is addressing this with remarkable clarity and execution,” said Dipanjan Basu, Co‑founder, Fireside Ventures. “Strong parent demand, high retention, and consistent neighborhood‑level trust, combined with coaching excellence, technology, community engagement, and robust safeguarding- position SFL to become India’s leading youth sports platform.”
Shun Sagara, Country Director of India, Genesia Ventures, added; “SFL exemplifies how a consumer‑focused, tech‑enabled sports development platform will shape the future of youth development in India. The model scales seamlessly while maintaining the quality and safety parents value most. With strong product‑market fit, SFL is building meaningful pathways for children to grow, play, and thrive.”
Ravinder Vashist, Co-Founder, Roots Ventures, said; “We are doubling down on SFL because the strength of the business model and the clarity of execution are evident. The scalability, operational discipline, and depth of consumer conviction we’ve seen are rare at this stage, and it is clear that SFL is solving a real market need. Our continued investment reflects our belief that SFL is on course to become the next category-defining company in India’s youth sports and development space.”
The Series A follows a year of strong momentum in which SFL tripled its revenue and added Pune as its second geography, after Mumbai. Season 2 of SFL’s football league saw participation from more than 100 teams in Mumbai, with the trophy unveiled by Bhaichung Bhutia. Today, over 1,500 children attend SFL’s coaching classes regularly and more than 2,000 participate in its tournaments, reflecting deep community engagement and a rapidly expanding footprint.
SFL has also reinforced its coaching leadership by onboarding globally and nationally recognised experts, including Heimir Hallgrímsson, current manager of the Republic of Ireland men’s national team, as Football Mentor & Global Ambassador, alongside leaders such as Yadwinder Singh (ex‑Captain, Indian Men’s Basketball Team), Shyam Sundar (Indian National Coach, Chess), and Deep Rambhiya (Current India Rank 1, Mixed Doubles, Badminton). This high‑calibre bench of mentors and coaches provides young athletes with access to world‑class training and structured development pathways, underscoring SFL’s ambition to build India’s most advanced youth sports ecosystem and contribute to the nation’s global sporting competitiveness.
In the coming year, SFL plans to enter Bengaluru and the NCR, onboard 10,000 additional children into its academies and 20,000 into its tournaments, and expand its portfolio from seven to twelve sports, with Cricket slated for launch soon. The company will continue to build AI‑based performance enhancement tools, personalised learning modules, and injury‑risk monitoring, while launching a youth sports broadcasting vertical to broaden access to competitions and data and to further professionalise the grassroots ecosystem.
