MAM
Disney, Mumbai Indians in licensing pact
MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani-owned IPL franchise Mumbai Indians has inked a licensing deal with The Walt Disney Company India to launch co-branded merchandise products targeted at under-14 kids segment.
The co-branded merchandise will be sold in around 5,000 Reliance retail outlets and will be also be promoted through the digital medium.
The two partners see a brand fit. Mumbai Indians have India’s favourite cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar at its helm who has huge following among kids particularly under-14. Mickey Mouse, Disney’s famous cartoon property, is also a popular character among kids..
With this association, the merchandise revenue of Mumbai Indians is expected to climb in comparison to last year’s revenue of Rs 50-60 million, according to Mumbai Indians co-owner Nita Ambani.
Ambani further said that her vision for Mumbai Indians was to make it a strong and satisfactory brand that is financially independent without the support of RIL. She also said that the franchise will break even in the long run.
Walt Disney India MD Ronnie Screwvala is delighted with this alliance. “Disney being the most acclaimed brand internationally has only bonded with brands that are commercially feasible in its nature,” he said.
He also feels that this coalition of Mumbai Indians and Walt Disney will expedite the aggrandizing of brand equity for both .
The former entrepreneur cum CEO of UTV also mentioned that the under 14 segment has high potential and will keep burgeoning in the next few years. He pegs the licensing market for kids in 4-14 age group at Rs 14 billion.
MAM
Polygon elevates Aishwary Gupta to lead global business push
Leadership elevation signals a sharper push into stablecoins and global payments.
MUMBAI: Money, it seems, is moving faster and Polygon Labs wants to be the one setting the pace. The blockchain firm has elevated Aishwary Gupta to global head of business, a leadership move that comes as regulated stablecoin payments and cross-border money flows move from theory to real-world adoption.
Gupta’s promotion marks a pivotal moment for Polygon Labs as it sharpens its focus on building financial infrastructure that can work at institutional scale. Having played a central role in forging enterprise and institutional partnerships across markets, Gupta now takes charge of global business strategy, ecosystem expansion and enterprise relationships at a time when blockchain-based payments are gaining both regulatory clarity and commercial momentum.
“When I joined Polygon, I believed blockchain would fundamentally reshape how money moves,” Gupta said. “What I didn’t fully anticipate was how quickly that conviction would be tested and validated.” He added that years of partnerships and negotiations with global institutions have reinforced one clear signal: the world is ready for better money infrastructure.
The elevation aligns with Polygon Labs’ broader ambition to build what it calls the Open Money Stack, a vertically integrated platform designed to power regulated stablecoin payments and seamless global money movement. The strategy has been reinforced by recent acquisitions, including Coinme and Sequence, expanding Polygon’s reach across key layers of the payments stack.
Through Coinme, Polygon gains licensed fiat on- and off-ramps across 48 US states. Sequence strengthens enterprise-grade smart wallet infrastructure, enabling one-click cross-chain transactions. Together with Polygon’s core network, the stack supports stablecoin settlement with fast, predictable finality with over $2.2 trillion in on-chain value already transferred.
The Open Money Stack is designed to strip out long-standing friction in global payments, from correspondent banking dependencies and settlement delays to restrictive cutoff times. The promise is straightforward: payments that settle in seconds and integrate directly with existing financial systems, rather than working around them.
“The vision is simple, empower anyone, anywhere to move money instantly,” Gupta said. “No correspondent banks, no settlement delays.” He added that the next three years will shape how money moves for decades, and that Polygon Labs is positioning itself to lead that shift from the front.
As blockchain infrastructure inches closer to the financial mainstream, Gupta’s elevation signals Polygon Labs’ intent to move from experimentation to execution and from potential to scale.
