Cricket NFT platform gets $17.4 million in seed investment

Faze Technologies, a platform that allows fans to collect, use, play and interact with cricket using non-fungible tokens, has teamed up with Coatue and Sequoia Capital India to raise $17.4 million (Rs 130 million) in a seed round hosted by Tiger Global. ) was raised. Dapper Labs, Samsung Next and Courtside Ventures also participated in this round.  

Faze has partnered with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to create an exclusive digital collectible (using immutable tokens) to run cricket  on the Flow blockchain. The company will phase out NFTs in the coming weeks and shortly after market launch. NFTs are a type of crypto asset where each token is completely unique. It can be used as a digital certificate of authenticity for any asset, whether digital or physical. The startup was founded by Wall Street veteran Anshum Bhambri,  Indian Premier League COO and former Reliance Sports CEO Sundar Raman, and serial entrepreneur Kushagra Kohli. He plans to use these funds to build a product and user base and attract talent. 

“Our mission is to create a cricket metaverse. We are uniquely positioned to combine NFT, gaming, financial services and money-can't-buy features to create a platform for fans to collect,  play and interact with cricket via NFT in Flow. Bhambri, CEO of Faze Technologies, said all NFT purchases can be made directly in seconds using a mobile wallet or credit/debit card, without the need for a crypto wallet to make all transactions as simple as possible. 

Faze has entered into a strategic partnership with Dapper Labs, the company behind the Flow blockchain. 

Roham Garegozlaw, CEO of Dapper Labs said: From the  NBA and WNBA to La Liga, NFL and UFC, we are seeing sports fans around the world introduce dynamic new fundraising opportunities on Flow, and we want to see  cricket fans interacting with the NFT.” 

Shailesh Lakhani, MD, Sequoia India said:  The Faze team makes Web 3.0 products that are fun, a little crazy, and very engaging. It is as easy to install and use as existing Web 2.0 applications, and it has been well received.”