FreeCharge hands over two-year on-ground sponsorship rights of IPL to Future Group
NEW DELHI: Snapdeal-owned digital payments platform FreeCharge has surrendered its two-year on-ground sponsorship rights for the Indian Premier League and handed over the rights to the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group.
The decision comes less than two years after the Bengaluru-based company had acquired the sponsorship rights and said it would spend more than Rs 100 crore on sponsorship, alliances and promotions during the tournament.
IPL 2017, which will kick off on April 5, will be the tenth edition of the most lucrative professional T20 cricket league in the world.
"IPL was a great opportunity for us to create awareness around digital payments last year. With demonetisation, wallets are much more in use and now we want to focus on creating market differentiation through various unique value-added services," a FreeCharge spokesperson told ET, without elaborating further.
The latest development comes at a time when FreeCharge has seen significant layoffs as part of measure to conserve cash, even as its parent, Jasper Infotech, continues to negotiate with potential investors to back the payments venture.
Earlier, FreeCharge's acquisition of sponsorship rights was seen as a move to counter bigger rival Paytm's coup in bagging the title sponsorship rights in July 2015 for all cricket matches, domestic and international, played in the country, for a pe riod of four years, in a deal worth more than Rs 200 crore.
Jasper Infotech has been on the road for almost 18 months to raise external money for its payments platform but has found it difficult to rope in investors, strategic or financial.
A combination of valuation mismatches, reluctance of the Snapdeal founders to cede control and continuing wariness of global investors to pump in further capital in the country's consumer-facing startups have been cited as the primary hurdles for a successful closure of any potential deal.
Meanwhile, FreeCharge is undergoing a major churn in leadership, with Jason Kothari, the chief strategy and investment officer of Snapdeal, taking over as the latest chief executive of the company, succeeding Govind Rajan, who had stepped down last month.
Separately, on Wednesday, it elevated its product head, Snapdeal veteran Ankit Khanna, to the position of chief operating officer.
Snapdeal, which is backed by SoftBank, Foxconn and Alibaba Group, has committed to invest in phases an additional $20 million (about Rs 133 crore) in FreeCharge, which will, according to the company statement, be used to, "accelerate innovation and growth".
The decision comes less than two years after the Bengaluru-based company had acquired the sponsorship rights and said it would spend more than Rs 100 crore on sponsorship, alliances and promotions during the tournament.
IPL 2017, which will kick off on April 5, will be the tenth edition of the most lucrative professional T20 cricket league in the world.
"IPL was a great opportunity for us to create awareness around digital payments last year. With demonetisation, wallets are much more in use and now we want to focus on creating market differentiation through various unique value-added services," a FreeCharge spokesperson told ET, without elaborating further.
The latest development comes at a time when FreeCharge has seen significant layoffs as part of measure to conserve cash, even as its parent, Jasper Infotech, continues to negotiate with potential investors to back the payments venture.
Earlier, FreeCharge's acquisition of sponsorship rights was seen as a move to counter bigger rival Paytm's coup in bagging the title sponsorship rights in July 2015 for all cricket matches, domestic and international, played in the country, for a pe riod of four years, in a deal worth more than Rs 200 crore.
Jasper Infotech has been on the road for almost 18 months to raise external money for its payments platform but has found it difficult to rope in investors, strategic or financial.
A combination of valuation mismatches, reluctance of the Snapdeal founders to cede control and continuing wariness of global investors to pump in further capital in the country's consumer-facing startups have been cited as the primary hurdles for a successful closure of any potential deal.
Meanwhile, FreeCharge is undergoing a major churn in leadership, with Jason Kothari, the chief strategy and investment officer of Snapdeal, taking over as the latest chief executive of the company, succeeding Govind Rajan, who had stepped down last month.
Separately, on Wednesday, it elevated its product head, Snapdeal veteran Ankit Khanna, to the position of chief operating officer.
Snapdeal, which is backed by SoftBank, Foxconn and Alibaba Group, has committed to invest in phases an additional $20 million (about Rs 133 crore) in FreeCharge, which will, according to the company statement, be used to, "accelerate innovation and growth".
