 So thank you for joining us here today and you know, for all our audience who've joined us here for this session, you know, as much as we have always loved you Raj on the field and batting his sixes. It's time today to talk about him on the business field where he's also batting a lot of sixes by investing in a lot of startups as an investor as a, you know, working with the startups very closely and to leverage and grow their business. So it's a winning match that you playing in the business field you Raj and thank you so much for supporting the startup ecosystem by your presence and also by all the insights and the investments that you're actually putting into the startup ecosystem and helping the startups to grow. So thank you for joining us here today. So as you were talking, you know, the fact that what you've done on the cricket field has been so great and we've all enormously loved your playing whenever you did it and today you're doing the same in the startup world as an investor and somebody who's closely working with all startup founders to help them grow and scale. So you know what what made you decide that you wanted to invest in startup ecosystem and you know how did how do you go about choosing the investors and startups that you really want to invest in and help them grow. I think, first of all, thank you for all your kind words and I think in 2013. I think I was recovering from cancer in 2011 and 2012. And then obviously, cricket wasn't going so great for me so I thought that I need to, you know, probably find a second line of work for myself. And I thought I thought that time startup ecosystem was just starting off. And it was an interesting platform to invest in and spoke to a few people in the business and invested in a few startups like healthy ends. Jet Set Go and few other companies was a bit aggressive. So luckily, a couple of them have gone well, but I just thought that I was able to create jobs opportunity for people out there. My main focus was, you know, to give people an opportunity to live their dreams because as when we were young kids, we always wanted you know that push from someone who can help us live our dreams. So I just thought there are a lot of people out there who want to make it big and it's probably the right time to invest in startups. And you know, we see that you're particularly sort of choosing health nutrition wellness startups as one of your core focus areas. So how is it that you sort of go about it? What exactly is the quality that you look within the stream in a startup? See, I think as a sportsman, you're also ambassador of the country. And there's a lot of young following you have, you know, you want to inspire people with the work you do. So I thought any startup that I do, it is important to help the community to help the community grow better. I thought the right nutrition with well-versed and healthy ends, you know, with health checkups is something that you're contributing towards society. And any startup we do as a team, our decision is to understand that how is it going to help the society? How is it going to create jobs? And how is it going to make people's lives better, simpler, probably faster and, you know, more productive. And, you know, given the fact that all these startups are now scaling up very quickly and the importance of health has become so important, particularly post the pandemic for all of us, you know, where we are thinking of eating, right. So how do you feel the journey of the startups, particularly post the pandemic and with so much consumer awareness about, you know, being healthy and being more importantly, you know, the preventive side of health being such an important issue to be managed now. So how is it that, you know, these startups are working and you're working with these startups to make that grow more aggressive awareness about this. Rituji, the stats there 2%, 2.5% of a country plays sport. 2.5% people in our country are into health and fitness. Right. And that is a really poor stat, you know. So obviously there are a lot of apps out there, there's a lot of awareness, the social media people can get fitter from home, you know, downloading so many apps. But the point is the awareness has to come from inside of health and nutrition. I mean, when I talk about Velvers, why I chose Velvers was the right nutrition, you know, you have to put the right stuff in your body. You cannot have results by doing exercise and eating crab food. So I think a lot of people are getting self aware, especially in COVID times that, you know, your lungs have to be healthy. You know, you're, you have to go for walks, you have to do some kind of cardiovascular exercise. So COVID has made us, made us aware, but we were not aware before this situation, which is unfortunate. I mean, India is a big country, you know, billion population, but 2.5% is a really poor number. So eitherly urge people out there to get into health and nutrition, you know, find the right food to eat. I'm sure at times, you know, we all love our kachoris and our jalebes on a Sunday, I'm sure we can do that. I just urge people to eat 6 days of a good diet and then, you know, have a cheat day and then continue and be healthy because all your wealth, your health is your wealth. And a lot of people don't understand that, especially in today's time. So I think it's really important that people look out for themselves, you know, get fitter, get healthier. And, you know, find your ikadai, ikadai is something that you really need something to believe in, something that you afford or something to enjoy. And, you know, make, inspire others, you know, you get fitter, you inspire your friends, your friends get fitter. So, you know, people sitting in the office, they're sitting on the chair for six hours, eight hours, you know, if they come in the morning, they do like half an hour of cardio, one hour, then go sit on the chair for six hours, you know, makes a huge difference in their lives. Sure. No, totally. And I think that's a big message that you've given to the audience today that, you know, they need to think health and fitness as a very as any other important aspect of their lives that they live. So thanks for that. You know, I mean, you mentioned that 2% of our population is fit and 2% of the population is doing something to keep themselves healthy, keep themselves fit. But on the other hand today, if you also see our sports is becoming much more wider, we've seen Olympic performance, which has been better than so many years prior to that. So from a sports tech perspective, what are you thinking, do you think we need more sports infrastructure in our country and now has the time come that we invest or, you know, as investors we look at either sporting individuals and we try to invest in them or try to invest in sports infrastructure, so that we can have, you know, much more success, much more medals or, I mean, just essentially a lot of people going out there and representing from India in sports and winning there, what more can be done? See, I believe that you have to believe in what you do, right, you just don't want to open the startup. You know, people who have the money and they want to invest, they need to find what they believe in. Like the sportsman, I believe there is need of infrastructure in smaller towns. You know, I run 15 cricket academies under the name of you rousing excellence. We've just started a sports arena called UV play where people can come and play football cricket and other sports. So I believe in, you know, providing the infrastructure in spaces where there is no facilities for kids who are in villages and they have to come to bigger towns, you know, to practice and to play sport. So I believe that a lot can be done to provide infrastructure in smaller cities. You look at China, you look at America, every corner you go to their country, there's a cricket ground, there's a golf field, there is an athletic field, you know, there is just open parks. So I think we need to create more infrastructure and it's just not only the government's job, it's, you know, the big corporates out there. I'm sure they help a lot of people, but I think if today we are winning one goal or achieve should be to win at least five or seven goals the next Olympics or more goals and get to a place where other countries are winning 15, 20 goals or, you know, medals. So I think we are doing well, but I'm sure as a country we can do better, create better infrastructure for, you know, especially smaller towns and, you know, be motivated towards the society. Sure. I think, you know, and this is what is required, maybe look for talent in sports everywhere, not just in big cities to really find the right sports spirit coming out and representing us on the global scale. So I think that's, that's great initiative you Raj. Also on the other side, you know, you have a foundation which is you we can so what what are the initiatives that are being taken by you we can to overall, you know, from from investment perspective or just for the society from a social perspective. See when I was going through my journey my after that the motivation was only to help people. Obviously, then we started a cancer foundation. When to learn some strong foundation live strong, learn to bought from their foundation. We came back and we want to do something for society. And I think we started in 2013, we're a bit slow, but I think we were able to do some great work. You know, more than 150,000 people spinning for different types of cancer. I have all these stats here more than 125,000 students sensitize for anti tobacco workshops. More than 24,000 men council for tobacco hesitation, education scholarship award over the more than 150 cancer survivors. So we've done a lot of work and then obviously COVID hit us. And, you know, we realize that the reason why we started the foundation was to help people. And obviously with we had a mission for 1000 COVID beds, and we able to create 700 beds till now, and there is a demand for almost to more 1000 beds. I mean, locations that we've already done are Delhi, Marchal Pradesh, Telangana, Bikaner, Madurai, and upcoming location the Sheenagar, Assam, Bangalore, Rohtak for more beds. So we are actually ready for the third wave. So I think as a cancer foundation, a lot of foundations out there I believe in, you know, doing what they're doing, which is great. But I believe when COVID came everybody got together, and we all are fighting for one cause. And that is what I feel, you know, bring people together. And I'm really proud that as a cancer foundation, we were able to do something for COVID as well. So it's just not about, you know, a particular cause it's about when in dire states, you know, you come together and help each other. Totally. And, you know, there's so much we can do together, then we can do by ourselves and I think particularly COVID has been an eye-opener where, you know, communities have come together to help each other. So I think that that's a wonderful cause. You know, on a personal level, you Raj, I mean, you know, you lived, you're living two journeys, you've lived as a sports person, now you're living as an investor and an entrepreneur. So what commonalities and what differences do you find in these two roles? You know, particularly from cricket, what is it that entrepreneurs can learn today? And what have you learned that you've brought to the business? I would say the boardroom. I think cricket has helped me to being a young entrepreneur. I mean, not so young at the moment, more a middle-aged man. But it's been a lot of ups and downs to my career. You know, it's been a learning curve in life. Cricket has taught me a lot, you know, how to bounce back and how to fight back. I think entrepreneur is also a young man's dream if I compare to cricket where you want to make it big. And I believe just my message to young entrepreneurs is always believe in your dream and, you know, focus on the right path. So for me, it's always been connected, you know, it's something which was new that I wanted to do. And it was something that I could help in helping people, you know, achieve their dreams. Because I'm sure in some, at some stage, when I was a young kid, some senior or some fellow cricketer helped me, you know, with my equipment or with helping me into any in some camp. So, you know, the same way I feel as a young entrepreneur, you know, you have to live your dream. You know, there are a lot of people who are going to say that, you know, you cannot make it, it cannot happen. But I believe if you live your dream, if you believe in it and if you go to the right path, eventually it will happen. Sure. No, yeah. That's so very true. So we've just got a question from our audience who are viewing this session and they're asking that, you know, other than health and nutrition, what would be your key focus of investments in the coming year in 2021-22, any D2C or any other such areas you're looking at? I think as a team, we probably take those decisions, you know, as I said, something to take, something which is going to help the society grow, something which is going to help the next generation, you know, my key areas are sports and nutrition and health. I probably want to focus on that. And whatever opportunities we get in the future, we're definitely going to invest in it. Sure. And there is also a question which says that, are you sort of also interested in tech or maybe, you know, tech related startups which are pure tech? I think gaming is a very interesting platform. It's something that we're looking at and NFT is also a very interesting startup which started in a digital asset. So I think these are very interesting startups. I mean, gaming has been, e-gaming is very popular all over the world but yet to come in India and, you know, there are a lot of young gamers and gaming has become like, it's like a profession, you know, there's some, it's a big tournament to win and, you know, it's pretty exciting format. So I think these are the probably techs that I'm really interested in and doing a bit of more research on them. Sure. I think those are great areas. Any thoughts on cryptocurrency? Great area, definitely, hopefully gets monetized in our country. It's something which is, I don't know, not in a position to say the right words for it but if it gets legalized in our country and, you know, obviously the government has to look at it. It probably will something where people look forward to invest, not invest, not the right time to say it's a bit of a controversial question. That's true. I think we're waiting for some regulation to happen there before, you know, we'll be confident enough in the whole ecosystem. Thank you very much, Yuvraj. It's been wonderful talking to you and such wonderful work that you're doing off the field this time but very, very important from a country's perspective, from our society's perspective. We also have entrepreneur awards about rewarding and recognizing to young companies who are building great business out there. Any words of encouragement you want to say to them? My best wishes to you and your team. I'm sure you guys are doing great work, spreading great messages and I wish you all the best and thank you for all your kind words. And hopefully, you know, I'm sure there are a lot of young entrepreneurs listening to what I'm saying. I hope it inspires them. It makes them believe into something that they really want to do and achieve it. And I wish all your dreams come true and I hope to talk to you guys soon. Absolutely and they would love to talk to you very closely as well, both as an investor as somebody who's already doing so much great work in this area. So, you know, I think if it had been to me, I would really recognize you as the angel for all startups. You certainly not just lending them financial investment but you're also lending them great model support to find their bearings in the startup world.