Sagar Rai is a former national-level athlete who competed across five sports and overcame severe childhood asthma to pursue a life in athletics — an experience that gave him a uniquely personal understanding of the systemic challenges facing grassroots sports in India. A B.Tech graduate from APJAKTU and a TEDx speaker, Sagar founded KIBI Sports in 2020 with a mission to digitise the global sports ecosystem from the ground up. KIBI Sports is today a Unified Sports Operating System — a SaaS, mobile, and AI-powered platform that connects athletes, institutions, and brands on a single digital infrastructure, replacing the spreadsheets and WhatsApp groups that have long defined grassroots sports operations. Trusted by 15,000+ athletes, 800+ partner organisations, and 134+ brand partners across 20+ sports and 25+ cities, KIBI Sports has built one of India’s largest verified athlete databases for AI-powered sponsorship matchmaking, event ticketing, league management, and academy operations. The startup is DPIIT-recognised under Startup India, was a National Startup Awards 5.0 finalist in the Sports category, and has been featured on Zee TV, Times of India, YourStory, and Entrackr. Sagar’s founding thesis — that Tier-3 athletes offer brands better ROI than metro influencers — has been validated through measurable campaign outcomes on the platform.