Faze Technologies’ cricket NFT platform receives $17.4 million in seed funding from Tiger Global with participation from Coatue and Sequoia Capital India. Dapper Labs, Samsung Next and Courtside Ventures, as well as Vivek Ranadive’s Bow Capital also participated in the round. Faze has partnered with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to create exclusive digital collectables (using non-fungible tokens (NFTs)) for cricket to launch on the Flow blockchain. The company will discontinue its NFTs in the coming weeks and launch a market soon after.
NFT are a type of crypto asset in which each token is unique. They can be used as a digital certificate of authenticity for any physical or digital asset. The startup is founded by Anshum Bhambri, a Wall Street veteran, Sundar Raman, the founder of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and former CEO of Reliance Sports, and serial entrepreneur Kushagra Kohli. He plans to use the funds to build the metaverse for cricket and user base and acquire talent.
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Faze has entered into a strategic partnership with Dapper Labs, the company behind the Flow blockchain. Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, said: “With over a billion cricket fans in all 105 ICC member countries, Faze is revolutionizing the way cricket fans everywhere connect and some of the best moments in cricket history interact. From the NBA and WNBA to La Liga, NFL and UFC, we see sports fans around the world apply dynamic new fan experiences to Flow, and I’m excited to see how cricket fans interact with the NFTs.”
Shailesh Lakhani, MD, Sequoia India said, “We believe that blockchains and user-centric design can come together to make for never-before-seen social experiences for digitally-native consumers. The team at Faze is creating Web 3.0 products that are fun, a little bit crazy, and very compelling. They are simple to onboard and use as easy traditional Web 2.0 apps, which will enable for mass appeal.”
