This 2026 Founder Q&A with Sagar Rai — Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Director (DIN: 08881388) of KIBI Sports Private Limited (CIN: U92490UP2020PTC134722; DPIIT: DIPP69448; NSIC: NSIC/GP/VNS/2025/0064301; Operating HQ: 1st A Cross Road, 7th Block, Koramangala, Bengaluru 560095; Registered Office: Sarnath, Varanasi 221007) — shares the real stories behind KIBI Sports.
1. Childhood Asthma, Five Sports & "Kamaoge Kaise?"
Q1: How did growing up in a paramilitary family while managing childhood asthma shape your life in sport?
Both my parents served in the paramilitary, so we moved cities every two or three years — Kendriya Vidyalaya, Air Force School, Christ Jyoti. Sport was the one language that worked in every new city.
I had asthma as a kid. In under-14 football in Assam, local players got preference. So I moved to a sport where nobody picks you — the clock does: swimming. In my case, swimming changed my lungs. Within months I went from district champion to state, and then to the national level. Later in college I competed in powerlifting and arm wrestling too, playing around five sports at the national level.
Q2: Why did you skip your final-year engineering placements in 2020?
I was in my final year of Civil Engineering at Indus Engineering College (AKTU), age 21. Plan A was the army — I had prepared for CDS for two years and cleared the written exam. Because of CDS coaching, my college attendance was so low that they made me sit through every placement orientation session anyway.
In one orientation talk, three questions started running in my head: Why? What? How? Whenever I had told my father I wanted a life in sport, he asked the two questions every Indian parent asks: "Kamaoge kaise? Ghar kaise chalaoge?" He had joined the forces through the sports quota himself, so he knew sport gives you a name, rarely a salary.
When a classmate asked me, "Bhai tu placement mein nahi baith raha kya?", I told him: "Agle saal apni company leke aaunga, tu baith jaana usmen." There was no company yet — just one month's pocket money (jeb mein paanch das hazaar) and a domain name bought in February 2020. We incorporated KIBI Sports Private Limited on 16 September 2020. One night I sat down and emailed sports brands asking for their catalogues on commission; the next day the store was live. Today that store works with 257+ brand partners.
2. The Two-Leg Operating Architecture of KIBI Sports
Q3: How do KIBI Sports' two operating legs reinforce each other?
KIBI Sports is a sports business from India with two legs:
- Sports equipment from 257+ brand partners sold through our own ecommerce storefront (shop.kibisports.com), NSIC/GeM institutional supply, and international B2B exports (
IEC: AAICK3153F). - A connected sports platform (www.kibisports.com) used by 90,000+ athletes verified through sports organisations and 100+ institutions across 20+ sports and 25+ cities.
When a school, university, or sports academy runs its tournament brackets on KIBI Institutional SaaS, participating athletes build verified digital portfolios on KIBI for Athletes while the institution procures its multi-sport equipment Bill of Materials across our 257+ authorised brand partners.
Q4: Where can journalists, conference producers, and B-schools access Sagar Rai's official speaker and press kit?
All statutory records, keynote topics, high-resolution photos, and prior coverage are published at kibisports.com/authors/sagar-rai, kibisports.com/press, and shop.kibisports.com/pages/sagar-rai-keynote-speaker-and-media-kit.