Bajaj says Dream Sports to back more startups globally
Rario, creators of the world’s first cricket NFT platform by IIT Delhi alumni from Singapore, has announced a US$120 million Series A funding round led by Victoria-based Dream Capital, the Vancouver-headquartered Corporate Venture Capital and M&A arm of Dream Sports of India.
Commenting on the announcement on 26 April 2022, Rario Co-Founder & CEO Ankit Wadhwa said, “Cricket is the 2nd largest sport in the world with more than 1.5 billion 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 140 million 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. Web3 use cases in sports are transformational, and we are looking to back more startups in the space globally with innovative utilities of NFTs.”
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.
Since 2021, Rario has sold over 50,000 NFTs to sports fans across 20 countries with the US, UK, Australia and India as its top 4 markets.
Founded in 2021 by IIT Delhi alumni Ankit Wadhwa and Sunny Bhanot, Rario 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.
Rario is a digital collectible platform for cricket fans to collect and trade officially licensed cricket moments on the blockchain, represented as a non-fungible token (NFT). Having Polygon Studios and Animoca as partners, Rario is built on the Polygon Network by a top-notch team of Indian founders and is backed by reputed investors such as Kingsway Capital and Presight Capital. fiinews.com
