All About Sports And Start-Ups Sandeep Narang In A Free-Wheeling Chat With Entrepreneur, He Shares His Love For Sports And Start-Ups

Sandeep Narang, Chairman, Anglian Omega Group, calls himself a coalition entrepreneur. He believes everyone can win together, but only if they work together. Despite inheriting a medium-sized family business, Narang wasn't happy. A typical sports enthusiast, he went on to support several sporting enterprises and currently backs 40 athletes, including para-athletes. In a free-wheeling chat with Entrepreneur, he shares his love for sports and start-ups.

From family business, what led to your move in sports?
Around 2008, I joined the family's alloy steel business. But along with it, I also wanted to do something with sports. My brother, Uday, and I worked towards raising capital.
And, he even managed to bring foreign funds. Currently, we support almost 40 athletes, eight of them participated in Olympics this year, including para-athletes. All of this, with private funds.

What kind of funding did the start-up get?
Initially, we raised around Rs 4 crores, and then Adani Enterprises got interested and decided to support six of our athletes. Now, we are running the biggest scouting program for athletes in Indian history. Last year, the scouting program took place in 50 districts and this year it will be organized in more than 100 districts, where children of various age groups, from 12 to 16 years, will participate. PM Modi also supports our initiative.

How did you get interested in start-ups?
I am an IIT drop-out. I always did what I felt was right and never really cared about anybody else's opinion. I got interested in start-ups, because it was a new arena. And in 1992, I started investing. I worked with rural start-ups, tried social entrepreneurship.
I am a start-up person, I keep changing and moving on. I conceive an idea, create it, find investors, build teams and then move on. It was rebellious and that why it interested me.

Give us an overall view of the group currently.
Currently, our turnover is around Rs 200 crore. We are into multiple start-ups and fast building assets, which valuate around seven hundred crores. We bought lot of land and acquired lot of funds internationally for establishing warehouse.

As an angel, have you invested in them?
During initial days, I worked with them hands on, helped them set up enterprises. But now, I mostly focus on investments. Several start-ups are working with us right now, we lead the road for them.We are focusing on expanding them further, instead of building something new. Khel Now, headed by a professional team based out of California, is our latest investment. Very few people in India are associated with sports related enterprises. We are focused on creating professional teams, like North East United, and then exit.