Former India cricket team captain M S Dhoni has invested an undisclosed sum in accounting services provider Khatabook.
He will also be the brand ambassador of the startup, which helps merchants record and track business transactions.
“He (Dhoni) embodies the spirit of true sportsmanship and entrepreneurship. At Khatabook, we aspire to build the same level of trust, agility and reliability among our merchants and business partners… we look forward to setting new milestones together as we build financial solutions for a billion Indians,” said Ravish Naresh, cofounder and CEO of Khatabook.
Startups are increasingly forming partnerships with celebrities, banking on data which indicate that consumers show greater recall and trust in products that have been endorsed by them — regardless of whether they are actual fans or not.
Investors say the payback multiple of a brand partnership is far higher compared to spending the same money on traditional marketing channels.
“Having grown up in small-town India, I saw friends and family struggle with outdated modes of doing business and tracking finances. Khatabook has had an outsized impact on the lives of India’s small merchants and retailers,” Dhoni said.
Khatabook is in the final stages of closing a $70 million (about Rs 503 crore) funding round led by new investor B Capital Group, ET reported in February.
Founders say that getting influencers and celebrities is becoming more common since advertising on Facebook and Google has become quite expensive now.
While celebrities do not come cheap, the time that they spend with brands can be blocked, the founders say.
Most celebrity deals are straight-up cash contracts, but startups are also increasingly negotiating for them to take an equity stake, for instance, MamaEarth, Cars24, and Epigamia.
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