PKL 2023: Who is the owner of U Mumba?
U Mumbai are oone of the 12 franchises competing in the Pro Kabaddi League, hailing from Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Defender Surinder Singh is leading the team, guided by Iran's national Kabaddi team's coach Gholamreza Mazandarani. Their home games are held at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium in Mumbai.
U Mumba is owned by Unilazer Ventures Pvt. Ltd, a company founded by entrepreneur and film producer Ronnie Screwvala.
Based out of Mumbai, Screwvala owns two other sports teams: U Mumba TT in the Ultimate Table Tennis League and Mumba Masters in the Global Chess League.
After being a part of the media and entertainment industry with UTV Software Communications and its diversification with The Walt Disney Co. in 2012, he directed efforts towards his non-profit organization, The Swades Foundation, alongside his wife.
The goal of the foundation is to empower a million people in rural India, steer them out of poverty every 6-7 years and move to a new geographic location.
Later, he co-founded UpGrad, the leading online education platform for higher education. Subsequently, he made his re-entry into the media content space, building RSVP movies to produce or co-produce movies.
The RSVP movies closely work with movie directors to share a common vision of storytelling. Screwvala also authored two books namely, ‘Dream With Your Eyes Open’ and 'Skill It, Kill It'.
He was named in the list of 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire in 2008. Moreover, he was ranked 78th among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time 100 in 2009.
U Mumba in PKL
U Mumba made their PKL debut in the inaugural season in 2014.
They started off as a dominant team and ended as the runner-up in the first season, losing to the Jaipur Pink Panthers. However, in 2015, they made a triumphant comeback to seal their first PKL title, beating Bengaluru Bulls in the final.
In the next season, U Mumba made their entry to the final for the third straight time but lost to Patna Pirates in a thrilled. U Mumba missed the playoffs in 2016 and 2017.
Although they reached the playoffs in 2018 in 2019, they fell short of silverware. They faced challenges in making the playoffs in 2021-22 and 2022. Led by Surinder Singh, U Mumba is having a fabulous season this time, though.