(Bloomberg) -- An online brokerage will sponsor India's top cricket league, another sign of how financial firms are seeking to tap a surge in retail investors across the nation.
Upstox -- backed by Tiger Global and which claims almost 3 million customers -- will be official partner for the Indian Premier League starting April 9, the league's Governing Council said in a statement Tuesday. The IPL's valuation has risen to $6.7 billion from $4.2 billion in 2016, according to valuation-appraisal company Duff & Phelps.
“In India, cricket is more than just a sport. It is an important part of our culture and
social life, with a huge fan-following, especially by the millennials,” said Ravi Kumar, Upstox co-founder. “With this integration of sports and finance, we intend to spread financial awareness across the country.”
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Around 10 million new investing accounts were opened largely by retail investors in India last year, calculations from the country's two main depositories of accounts show. India's average daily stock turnover has almost doubled to 16.3 trillion rupees ($225 billion) in January from a year earlier, data from Angel Broking Ltd. show.
For the first time in the history of the IPL, a brand in the stock and mutual fund sector would be partnering, according to the statement.
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