Kapil turns venture investor, buys stake in 'traders league'

Former cricketer Kapil Dev today turned venture investor, picking up stake in a company which would be organising a competitive league for traders who invest on bourses.

The former India captain picked up an undeclared stake in Samco Ventures, which will soon start 'Indian Traders League' (ITL), where the investors will be competing for the honours on the basis of the returns they earn.

"ITL takes trading and investing to a whole new level of experience, which involves real money, real markets, real people and real returns," Samco Ventures said in a release.

The winner will be the one who generates highest percentage net return or what is also called 'Absolute Return on Net Funds' (ARONF), a company statement said, adding that one of the big four accounting firms has given its approval to this methodology.

For this new innings, Kapil has teamed up with the founder of London-based investment management firm Bay Capital Partners Siddharth Mehta and others who have invested $3 million in Series A funding.

With this, Kapil joins young cricketers like Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli who have made venture investments. He was earlier associated with the Subhash Chandra-promoted Indian Cricket League (ICL).

"I have always taken all the decisions from my heart, but ITL intrigued me and I feel that the disruption which one-day match and IPL brought to cricket, ITL would bring to investors and traders in stock market," Kapil said.

He always "wanted to be a stock market investor", he added.

The first edition of ITL (which would be an annual event) will start on May 19 and continue till March 31, the end of fiscal.