Cricket NFT platform Rario has raised $120 million Series A funding round from Dream Capital, the corporate venture capital and M&A arm of Dream Sports and Alpha Wave Global.

Rario said it has the largest share of cricket NFT rights globally through exclusive partnerships with six international cricket leagues and a roster of over 900 cricketers. With Dream Capital’s investment, Rario now gets access to Dream Sports’ 140 million users, who will only be offered FIAT (government-issued currency) products in India.

Singapore-based Rario was founded in 2021 by Ankit Wadhwa and Sunny Bhanot. The company recently signed 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. Since 2021, Rario has sold over 50,000 NFTs to sports fans across 20 countries with the USA, UK, Australia, and India as its top 4 markets. 

NFT ecosystem

Commenting on the fundraise, 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.” 

Dream Capital was incepted in 2020 to invest in startups through a multi-stage investment strategy and ticket sizes ranging from $1million to $100 million ticket sizes. Dream Capital invests in sectors like sports, gaming, and fitness-tech. With Rario, Dream Capital’s portfolio grows to 9 companies and marks the foray of Dream Sports into the Web3 space.  

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.”