Faze Technologies, a nonfungible token-based platform enabling cricket fans to collect, utilise, play, and connect with the game, has secured $17.4 million (Rs 130 crore) in a seed round headed by Tiger Global with participation from Coatue and Sequoia Capital India.
The round included Dapper Labs, Samsung Next, and Courtside Ventures.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has partnered with Faze to generate special digital collectibles (using nonfungible tokens) for cricket, which will be released on the Flow blockchain. In the next weeks, the business will discontinue its NFTs and open a marketplace.
NFTs are a sort of cryptocurrency in which each token is one-of-a-kind. They may be used as a digital or physical certificate of authenticity for any material.
Anshum Bhambri, a Wall Street veteran, Sundar Raman, the founder of the Indian Premier League and former CEO of Reliance Sports, and serial entrepreneur Kushagra Kohli formed the company. It intends to utilise the capital to expand its product and user base, as well as hire more employees.
“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. Every NFT purchase can be made directly within seconds via a mobile wallet, or a credit/debit card without the need for a crypto wallet, to ensure that every transaction is as easy as possible,” said Bhambri, CEO of Faze Technologies.
Dapper Labs, the firm behind the Flow blockchain, has entered into a strategic agreement with Faze.
“With over one billion cricket fans throughout the ICC’s 105 member nations, Faze is revolutionising how cricket fans everywhere interact and engage with some of the greatest moments in cricket history,” said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs. We’re seeing sports fans all around the world adopt new dynamic fan-driven experiences on Flow, from the NBA and WNBA to La Liga, the NFL, and the UFC, and I’m excited to watch how cricket fans interact with NFTs.”
“We think that blockchains and user-centric design may come together to create never-before-seen social experiences for digitally-native customers,” said Shailesh Lakhani, MD, Sequoia India. Faze’s team creates Web 3.0 products that are engaging, a touch weird, and a lot of fun. They’re as easy to set up and use as typical Web 2.0 apps, which means they’ll appeal to a wide audience.”