"Sport and life sciences look like separate sectors. They're actually very interconnected. The science of what makes athletes perform better, recover faster and extend their careers is the same science that improves how ordinary people age. India has the research talent, the clinical infrastructure and the commercial incentive to lead in both. The opportunity is to connect them deliberately rather than let them develop in parallel."
The longevity economy
One of the defining economic trends of the next three decades is what analysts increasingly describe as the longevity economy: the growing global market for products, services and technologies that extend healthy human lifespan. It spans pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, wearables, nutrition science, genetic research and rehabilitation technology, and is attracting significant capital across markets.
Elite sport sits at the frontier of that economy. Professional athletes are, in effect, test cases for human performance optimisation. The recovery protocols, nutritional interventions, biomechanical analysis tools and injury prevention systems developed for professional sport consistently filter into mainstream medicine over time.
India's opportunity, Nicole Junkermann argues, is to compress that timeline: to become not just a recipient of sports life sciences technology developed elsewhere but an active producer of it.
The country already has significant strengths to build on. India is a global leader in pharmaceuticals and drug manufacturing. It has a growing biotech and health technology sector. Its engineering and scientific talent base is deep. And it has a professional sports sector that is expanding rapidly and generating growing demand for performance science.
What leagues can do
Junkermann argues that India's professional sports leagues have an underappreciated role in developing this ecosystem and a direct commercial incentive to do so.
Leagues that invest seriously in athlete health and performance science create two compounding benefits. First, they produce better athletes. Career longevity, reduced injury rates and optimised recovery translate directly into product quality on the pitch or court, which in turn supports audience growth, media value and sponsorship demand. Second, they generate data. The biomechanical, physiological and psychological data produced by tracking elite athletes at scale is a research asset with value well beyond the league itself.
"A professional league that takes athlete health seriously isn't just doing the right thing. It's building an asset. The performance data, the clinical protocols and the partnerships with life sciences companies have long-term commercial value that most leagues haven't begun to account for. The NBA and Premier League are learning that. India's leagues can start from that understanding rather than arrive at it later."
The investment opportunity
NJF Holdings is evaluating opportunities at this intersection in India across several categories: sports performance technology companies applying AI and data science to athlete development; health technology platforms addressing the needs of active populations; diagnostics and wearables companies whose products are validated in professional sport before reaching consumer markets; and research partnerships between professional leagues and life sciences institutions.
Junkermann draws a direct parallel to how India built its digital public infrastructure in payments and identity: by identifying a systemic need, investing in the foundational layer and creating conditions for private innovation to follow.
"India didn't stumble into UPI. It made a deliberate decision to build payment infrastructure that served everyone. The same logic applies to sports life sciences. If India decides to build the infrastructure that connects professional sport to longevity research to consumer health, it can lead the world in this space within a decade. If it lets the sectors develop separately, it will spend the following decade importing the technology from elsewhere."
NJF Holdings will share further details on specific investment activity in this area later in 2026.
About NJF Holdings
NJF Holdings is a global investment group founded by Nicole Junkermann, encompassing NJF Capital, a venture portfolio of more than 40 technology, AI and life sciences companies, and Gameday by NJF Holdings, a sports investment and platform business.
Notable NJF Capital investments include SpaceX, Revolut, Rippling and Groq, acquired by Nvidia. Gameday by NJF Holdings is the largest shareholder in Italy's Lega Volley Femminile.
For more information, visit NJFHoldings.com and gameday.team.
