A whopping amount of $120 million has been raised by cricket non-fungible tokens (NFTs) platform as they made the announcement on Thursday (April 21). The Series A funding round was led by Dream Capitals, the Corporate Venture Capital and M&A arm of Dream Sports.
This marks Dream Capital’s first investment in the Web3 space and is also its largest cheque so far in a startup.
Rario currently has the largest share of cricket NFT rights globally through exclusive partnerships with 6 international cricket leagues and a roster of 900+ cricketers. With Dream Capital’s investment, Rario now gets access to Dream Sports’ 140 Million users, who will be offered FIAT-only products in India, with the potential to create the largest cricket NFT platform globally. Alpha Wave Global (previously Falcon Edge Capital) also participated in the round, and now joins existing investors Animoca Brands (Global leader in Web3 gaming), Presight Capital, and Kingsway Capital.
The Singapore-based company, founded in 2021 by IIT Delhi alumni Ankit Wadhwa and Sunny Bhanot, has recently signed one of the world’s largest cricket NFT deals; a multi-year exclusive partnership with Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association to create an Australian cricket metaverse of collectibles and gaming. Rario enables fans to engage as a community, giving them a chance to own a piece of cricket history through digital collectibles across player cards, video moments, and cricket artifacts. Through Rario, Indian sports fans can buy, sell, and trade NFTs through FIAT-only mediums — credit cards, debit cards, and bank transfers. Since 2021, Rario has sold over 50,000 NFTs to sports fans across 20 countries with the USA, UK, Australia, and India as its top 4 markets.
Dream Capital was incepted in 2020 to empower startups by following a multi-stage investment strategy ranging from US$1M to $100M ticket sizes, with a key focus on core sectors of Dream Sports such as sports, gaming, and fitness-tech. With Rario, Dream Capital’s portfolio grows to 9 companies and marks the foray of Dream Sports into the Web3 space. This is currently the largest investment by DreamCap, and also the single largest investment in the cricket NFT space globally. Commenting on this, Ankit Wadhwa, Co-Founder & CEO, Rario said, “Cricket is the 2nd largest sport in the world with more than 1.5bn fans globally. NFTs are creating new forms of engagement allowing fans to own and trade digital collectibles. Rario’s global cricket NFT ecosystem will be further strengthened by the 140M sports fans on Dream Sports.”
Speaking on the investment, Dev Bajaj, Chief Strategy Officer, Dream Sports, said, “DreamCap is glad to partner with Rario to help sports fans engage deeper with their favorite players and teams.
