Sports blockchain technology firm FanCraze has reportedly secured USD 100 million in a series A funding round that included the participation of Portugal soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo.
The financing round was led by Venture capital firms B Capital Group and Insight Partners.FanCraz had earlier announced $17.4m seed round funding led by Tiger Global and with participation from Coatue, Sequoia India, and Dapper Labs, among others. The proceeds from the investment will be used to fund the expansion of the company’s metaverse across the cricket landscape for current and emerging partners. Mirae Financial, Tiger Global, Coatue Management, Sequoia Capital India, Courtside Ventures also invested in the round.
Founded by Wall Street veteran Anshum Bhambri, and Sundar Raman in 2021, Fancraze secured the exclusive rights to create NFTs based on International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments.
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“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,” Economic Times quoted Anshum Bhambri as saying.
The first NFTs, known as ‘Crictos’, were launched in January and feature video clips from the last two editions of the men’s ICC Cricket World Cup in 2015 and 2019. A total of 75 key moments of these two World Cups were converted into NFTs for the launch. Among them were NFTs of cricketers including Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Kane Williamson, AB De Villiers, Chris Gayle and Kumar Sangakkara, among others. FanCraze NFTs start at a basic price point of $9 and go up to $249 for more exclusive collections. Fans can buy them through net banking or debit card transactions and not necessarily only via crypto currency.
