The creators of the world’s first cricket NFT platform, Rario has announced a $120 million Series A funding round led by Dream Capital, Dream Sports‘ Corporate Venture Capital and M&A arm. Rario currently holds the most cricket NFT rights in the world, thanks to exclusive collaborations with six international cricket leagues and a roster of over 900 cricketers.
Rario now has access to Dream Sports’ 140 million users, who will be provided FIAT-only products in India, with the opportunity to generate the largest cricket NFT platform in the world, thanks to Dream Capital’s investment. Alpha Wave Global (previously Falcon Edge Capital) merged current investors Animoca Brands (Global leader in Web3 gaming), Presight Capital, and Kingsway Capital in the round.
The Singapore-based firm, which was founded in 2021 by IIT Delhi alumni Ankit Wadhwa and Sunny Bhanot has recently inked a multi-year exclusive agreement with Cricket Australia (CA) and the Australian Cricketers’ Association to create an Australian cricket metaverse of collectibles and gaming.
Rario allows fans to interact as a community and own a portion of cricket history through digital collectibles such as player cards, video moments, and cricket artefacts. Indian sports fans can use Rario to buy, sell, and trade NFTs using FIAT-only mediums such as credit cards, debit cards, and bank transfers. Since 2021, Rario has managed to sell over 50,000 NFTs to sports fans in 20 countries, with the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and India being its top four markets.
Dream Capital was founded in 2020 to empower startups through a multi-stage investment plan ranging from US$1M to $100M ticket sizes, with a primary focus on core Dream Sports sectors such as sports, gaming, and fitness-tech. Rario brings Dream Capital’s portfolio to nine companies and marks Dream Sports’ entry into the Web3 space. This is Dream Capital’s largest investment to date, as well as the single largest financing in the cricket NFT space globally.
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.”
Dev Bajaj, Chief Strategy Officer, Dream Sports, commented, “DreamCap is glad to partner with Rario to help sports fans engage deeper with their favourite players and teams. Web3 use cases in sports are transformational, and we are looking to back more startups in the space globally with innovative utilities of NFTs.”