Tiger Global, Sequoia back $17.4m round of cricket NFT startup

Faze Technologies, a startup that creates exclusive digital collectibles for cricket on public blockchains, has raised US$17.4 million in its seed round led by Tiger Global.

Photo credit: Faze Technologies

Other investors that participated in the round include Sequoia Capital India, Coatue, Dapper Labs, Samsung Next, Courtside Ventures, and Bow Capital also took part in the financing round.

Faze has partnered with the International Cricket Council to create digital collectibles using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for cricket to launch on the Flow blockchain. It aims to establish a platform that creates a direct connection between the creator and the consumer, where users can showcase their NFTs on social media and gain access to peer-to-peer trading.

The startup was founded by Anshum Bhambri, a former investment banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and a Stanford graduate; Sundar Raman, former COO of the Indian Premier League and ex-CEO of Reliance Sports; and Kushagra Kohli, co-founder of Round Finance.

“Our mission is to build the metaverse for cricket. We are in a unique position to combine NFTs, gaming, financial utilities, and money-can’t-buy experiences to create a platform for fans to collect, use, play, and interact with cricket through NFTs on Flow,” said Bhambri.

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Faze has also entered into a partnership with Dapper Labs, which is building similar experiences for sports leagues and federations across the world. Dapper Labs’ current studio partners include the NBA, the National Football League, and Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Notable investors in Dapper Labs include Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Union Square Ventures, Venrock, Google Ventures, and Samsung, among others.