FanCraze, Digital collectibles-focused startup has secured $100 Mn, to enrich cricket NFT fans experience. FanCraze helps its users to Collect and trade officially-licensed cricket NFTs from the ICC. Further, start building your roster of legends, current superstars, and emerging talents.
The fresh capital will be deployed to fund the expansion of the startup’s metaverse across the cricket landscape for current and emerging partners, as per a report by ET. The funding round was led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, with B Capital.
Funds would also be used to scale its engineering, marketing, and customer success teams as the startup expands its tech-centric offering to build the overall fan experience.
FanCraze to accelerate R&D and Growth of Global Team
The cricket NFT startup FanCraze plans to use the proceeds to integrate new sports relationships and to accelerate the growth of its global team, R&D lab, user experience team, gaming studio, and marketplace platform where fans can buy, trade, and craft their NFTs.
Founded in 201 by Anshum Bhambri, Sundar Raman (the founding COO of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and former CEO of Reliance Sports), and Kushagra Kohli, FanCraze has partnered with cricketers such as Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Andre Russell, Shikhar Dhawan, Jonty Rhodes, Muthiah Muralidaran, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Yuzvendra Chahal, for NFTs over and above its ICC partnership.
“NFTs are fast becoming a movement and are enabling a direct relationship between all types of IP owners and their fans. NFTs represent culture and FanCraze is building an experience that would enable fans to collect cricket NFTs, engage with play-to-earn games and utilities, and own digital land,” said Anshum Bhambri, CEO of FanCraze.
FanCraze had made the trading marketplace live on its website in January this year. Those who own NFTs would be allowed to build a collection across a particular match or series; trade the NFTs with fans across the globe; win an opportunity to interact with their favourite cricketers or use the NFTs across upcoming apps and play-to-earn games to earn financial rewards in the FanCraze Metaverse.
“We are thrilled to back FanCraze, which is augmenting the power of NFTs to give higher freedom, economic incentives, and thrill to fans. It can become a powerful mechanism to onboard new users in the Web3 space, where we have made multiple investments in the past,” said Kabir Narang, founding general partner, B Capital.
Tiger Global, Coatue Management, Sequoia Capital India, Courtside Ventures, and Cristiano Ronaldo’s CR7 also invested in the round. ET reported this to be one of the largest Series A rounds in Asia.
