[Funding alert] Dream Capital leads $120M Series A round in cricket NFT platform Rario

Singapore-based cricket NFT platform Rario on Thursday announced a $120 million Series A funding round led by Dream Capital, the corporate venture capital and  M&A arm of Dream Sports.

Rario currently claims to have the largest share of cricket NFT rights globally through exclusive partnerships with six 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. 

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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 artefacts. Through Rario, Indian sports fans can buy, sell, and trade NFTs through FIAT-only mediums - credit cards, debit cards, and bank transfers. Since 2021, the startup has sold over 50,000 NFTs to sports fans across 20 countries with the USA, UK, Australia, and India as its top four markets. 

Dream Capital was incepted in 2020 to empower startups by following a multi-stage investment strategy ranging from $1 million to $100 million 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 nine companies and marks the foray of Dream Sports into the Web3 space. This claims to be 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 and CEO, Rario said, 

“Cricket is the second 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.” 

“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," added Dev Bajaj, Chief Strategy Officer, Dream Sports.