Amidst the Indo-China stand-off at the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, the pulling out of Chinese firm VIVO as the title sponsor for the thirteenth edition of the IPL led to an intense bidding war between corporate houses and start ups to win the race for becoming associated with BCCI's flagship T20 tournament by way of sponsorship deals.

In yet another example of a start-up joining up with the IPL for the impending 13th season in the UAE, Bangalore-based startup CRED joined in the cash rich T20 league as the official partner for the 13th edition. The 13th IPL is scheduled to be held in UAE from September 19 to November 10.

Earlier in August, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has roped in another Bengaluru based startup Unacademy as its official partner,

BCCI took to Twitter in Tuesday to make the announcement for the new deal. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly was quick to compliment the Board for their relentless efforts in roping in quite a few Indian business ventures for the IPL amid "tough market situation".


Mr Brijesh Patel, Chairman, IPL, said: "We are very pleased to have CRED on board as the 'Official Partner' of the Indian Premier League 2020 to 2022. IPL is one of the most innovative sporting leagues of the world and we are delighted to have a brand as unique and innovative as CRED partner us. I am sure more people across the country will take notice of them as we embark on this exciting journey."

Founded by Kunal Shah and established in 2018, CRED has been on the upswing and hogged quite a lot of limelight as a rapidly growing credit card payment application which has turned a lot of heads among the younger generation. The Bangalore based startup raised funds at least twice in 2019 alone. A $125 million series A round and $120 million series B funding from Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Gemini Investments and more.

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CRED has raised a total of $175.5M in funding over 4 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jul 26, 2019 from a Series B round, according to Crunchbase. CRED's was valued at $450 million in August 2019.

"We are pleased to have Unacademy on board as the 'Official Partner' of the Indian Premier League 2020 to 2022," IPL chairman Brijesh Patel had said in a release.

In the race to emerge as the new title sponsor for IPL 2020 after the exit of Chinese mobile-maker Vivo, Sports gaming platform Dream11 with a bid of Rs 222 crore edged educational technology companies Unacademy and BYJUs to win the sponsorship rights for a period for the year 2020, which entails four months and 13 days. Byju's had submitted a bid of Rs 201 crore while Unacademy bid Rs 170 crore.