"The dream project of this firm is to see an Indian company become a global brand": Abhishek Padwal of HiG Sports

There are not too many companies in the world that do not aspire to have an international presence for their products and services, and be a global brand. For the sports, fitness, and leisure industries that are so intricately connected globally today, this can be something that is not only aspirational, but also of vital strategic importance.

Oftentimes, though, especially for startups in these industries, it may be difficult to have access to the right networks, resources, and knowledge to execute this vision and enter a market as highly diverse as India (for companies based outside the country), or for Indian companies to take the bold step of expanding internationally.

Born out of the realization of a gap in the market, HiG Sports, a B2B consulting firm with a focus on innovations in the sports, fitness, and leisure sectors, was founded by seasoned cross-border trade and investment professional Abhishek Padwal.

To find out more about the novel company conceptualized in Mumbai, Sportskeeda recently caught up recently with Abhishek Padwal, founder and CEO of HiG Sports. Touching upon the vision behind starting the consulting business, the services offered, and what made him come up with the name for the firm, Abhishek said:

“The vision behind HiG is quite simply to foster cross-pollination of innovations and best practices in the sports, fitness, and leisure industries between India and the world. We assist and advise international entities for India market entry and engagement, and by the same token, we enable global market access for Indian companies.”

Noting that HiG Sports does not have any restrictions on the size of the company it serves — whether an early-stage startup, growth stage, or a mature-stage entity — Abhishek added:

“On the other side of the spectrum, HiG also aims to work directly with sporting organisations (leagues, franchises, broadcasters, media agencies, facilities, event companies) in simplifying, augmenting, and offloading their scouting or discovery of innovations to streamline their management or marketing processes.”

Coming to the nomenclature of the firm, Abhishek informed that HiG is an acronym for Hibiscus Innovation Gateway, an acronym that received a thumbs up during the firm's setup phase, with the terms "Hibiscus" and "Gateway" found to evoke Indian imagery. Further adding that HiG Sports sounded like a catchy acronym with a sporty vibe to it, Abhishek elaborated on the reasoning behind the nomenclature by saying:

“Just as Indians and many Eastern cultures offer Hibiscus to God, HiG is a service offered to God (which is none other than our clients or partners - again an Indian belief!). Meanwhile, ‘Innovation’ is the underlying theme and ‘Gateway’ indicates a conduit, a market access channel to and from India (and given that we do have the actual Gateway of India in Mumbai, it seems quite symbolic)."

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Focus areas for HiG Sports - a new age B2B consulting firm for the sports, fitness, and leisure industries

Any B2B consulting firm operating in the vast global sports, fitness, and leisure industries needs to define certain specific sectors and types of clients within the industry it intends to work with.

Offering some insights on the areas HiG Sports intends to target, Abhishek said:

“There is a wide gamut of physical, digital products, and new age experiential concepts that come under the sports, fitness and leisure industry landscape. HiG Sports has segmented these in 5 baskets - sports media and fan engagement (predominantly digital/analytics solutions), human performance assessment and enhancement (for both professional and recreational athletes – physical as well as AI/ML based solutions), sports infrastructure (kids play areas/equipment, StadiaTech, Surfaces), gaming & esports, and lastly leisure & recreation (e.g., simulated/immersive AR/VR environments, gamified fitness, sports tourism applications).”

Going beyond the impressive range of sectors the firm is actively involved in, Abhishek also went a step further to talk about HiG Sports' target group of businesses, commenting:

“Our target group ranges from sporting leagues, franchises, broadcasters, media agencies, consumer brands, sports/fitness facilities, event companies, government bodies, sports federations, real estate developers, educational institutes, corporates, sport retailers, distributors, and ecommerce platforms.”

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Need for HiG Sports and its services

Taking a step back and going down memory lane, Abhishek noted that in his 15 years of cross-border trade and investment experience, he has come across and worked with HiG-like companies in other mainstream sectors such as food & beverage, lifesciences, infrastructure, and mining - but not in sports.

In sports, while there are industry bodies, the Big 4/5 Consulting firms, industry experts, and even education institutes doing Indian market entry-related work by way of conferences, market research reports, go-to-market strategy, and more. Abhishek noted that these stakeholders support at a more strategic level, and/or often specialize in one particular area, be it sports infrastructure, professional/grassroots sports, B2C sports/fitness products, or gaming.

Expanding upon this premise, the founder of HiG Sports mentioned:

“For international product companies, there is no single window, an exclusive reference point, or an integrator to refer in the broader context of the Indian sports and fitness economy. Similarly, Indian innovators and companies don’t have a local first POC before they start their global journies."

Further explaining the value offering and differentiation that the firm offers, Abhishek said:

HiG is well-positioned to fill this gap with the way we have structured our collaborative approach, flexible and adaptive services, diversified local and global networks. We also need to respect that the majority of the sport innovation companies are small-to-mid size in nature and relatively new in the business. Not all can afford to set up offices [and] hire full-time staff, which is where HiG could act as an extended, quasi team for such companies.”

It is often said that if you are able to find something you love doing, and that something that has an existing demand, you are likely to be golden. For Abhishek Padwal, on a personal level, having specialized in cross-border trade, this is the kind of work he loves doing, and sports is a sector that he is closely tuned to both emotionally and intellectually.

Professionally, further validating the HiG Sports concept, Abhishek noted that similar companies have come up in international markets in the last 5-6 years as the global sports industry is evolving. Rounding off this chain of thought, he added:

“I had a similar setup 12-13 years ago but that was a bit premature for its time. It is now just about the right time - this decade is going to be a transforming one for the Indian sports industry and through HiG, I (along with my colleagues, clients, partners) intend to contribute our bit in empowering and enriching the ecosystem with innovations, and new age concepts.”

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HiG Sports - an Indian firm with a global outlook

The Indian market has seen widespread interest from several international sporting organizations, teams, and leagues in recent years, including the Premier League, La Liga, Borussia Dortmund, and the NBA, among others. With global sporting properties and brands having started on their internationalization plans — beyond the Indian Premier League (IPL) recently becoming the second most-valued league in the world after the NFL, following the sale of its media rights for the 2023-2027 cycle — their Indian counterparts have some catching up to do.

Talking about the vision for HiG Sports in fulfilling this goal and beyond, Abhishek confessed:

“Firstly, to clarify, while our focus is on APAC, the outlook is global. Truth be told, the dream project for HiG is to see an Indian company become a global brand.”

Adding further that HiG Sports already has a number of European and North American clients and partners, Abhishek reflected:

“The exploration of the Indian market by the likes of the Premier League, NBA, etcetera, indicates the conventional West-to-East cross-border route for trade, knowledge transfer, capacity building, partnerships, etcetera. Many opportunities are yet to be explored East-to-East. For instance, building bridges between the Chinese/Japanese/Korean and Indian sports industry, leveraging the strong affinity between the Indian and Australian Sporting Landscapes, etcetera.”

Diving deeper into the potential for East-to-East exchanges, he further offered:

“Tennis Australia, Australia’s National Basketball League, and AFL are equally keen to grow their brand in India, while the Indian side is interested in growing kabaddi in Australia and other APAC countries. HiG could play a pivotal role in these engagements by leveraging technology and innovative solutions to the respective sporting codes.”

While international leagues looking to explore India and APAC have traditionally been those dominated by Western countries, in the case of sports like table tennis, badminton, shooting, archery, esports, these are typically dominated by Asian countries.

Noting that HiG Sports already has clients that have developed innovations particularly for these sports, Abhishek pointed out that another trade advantage with the APAC focus is that HiG Sports is poised to be a reference point for the West to venture into the entire APAC region and not just India. Finally, he also pointed out that unlike the only two other such firms in Asia, HiG Sports covers the subcontinent and the Oceania region as well.

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HiG Sports starting strong with strategic partnerships

The Mumbai-based consulting firm recently announced a one-of-its-kind tripartite (investment group + consulting firm + industry body) strategic tie-up with Hong Kong-based Varcis Group and the Australian Sports Technology Network (ASTN).

Clearly excited about this partnership, Abhishek said:

“This partnership is precisely the reason which places the HiG clients and partners strategically in the APAC. Companies are smart enough to tap into such a network (Golden Triangle, as we call it) to maximize and expedite their business growth, mitigate GTM risks, and gain access to knowledgeable, well-connected investment sources (a paradox in India – despite being world’s third largest ecosystem for startups/unicorns, there is still an evident dearth of knowledgeable sports/fitness product-focused investors with strong connects in the industry).”

Each partnership for any business varies in nature from one another. Regarding the nature of their partnerships, Abhishek indicated that they vary from partner to partner, saying:

“Two of our local partnerships expose our potential clients (in the human performance space) to the large fitness, running, and cycling communities of India, which act as a test bed for companies to validate their products, run promos, campaigns, and educational workshops directly with the end customers. Once the product is validated, we have ties with several distributors to drive sales, marketing and manage inventory."

Not one to shy away from talking about the work that the consulting firm is engaged in, Abhishek rounded off the conversation by adding:

"One of our partner distributors in the gaming space, for instance, is in fact the largest in India - e-xpress Interactive based in Mumbai. On similar lines, our partnerships with sports innovation clusters, trade & industry bodies, channel partners, subject matter experts in Europe and the USA, etcetera, will allow Indian companies to gain traction from Western market access.”

With increased interest, investments, and the development of the global sports, fitness, and leisure industries over recent years, it would seem that HiG Sports has found the sweet spot in its bid at the intersection of the startup ecosystem of the industry, cross-border trade, and innovation.