Faze Technologies, a platform for fans to collect, use, play and interact with cricket through nonfungible tokens, has raised $17.4 million (Rs 130 crore) in a seed-funding round, led by Tiger Global with participation from Coatue and Sequoia Capital India.

Dapper Labs, Samsung Next and Courtside Ventures also participated in the round.

Faze has signed a partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to create exclusive digital collectibles (using nonfungible tokens) for cricket to launch on the Flow blockchain. The company will drop its NFTs in the next few weeks and soon after launch a marketplace.

NFTs are a type of crypto asset in which each token is entirely unique. They can be used as a digital certificate of authenticity for any asset, digital or physical.
(Read our explainer on NFTs here.)

The startup is founded by Wall Street veteran Anshum Bhambri, founding operating chief of the Indian Premier League and former Reliance Sports CEO Sundar Raman, and serial entrepreneur Kushagra Kohli. It plans to utilise the funds for building product and user base, and acquiring talent.

“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.

Faze has entered into a strategic partnership with Dapper Labs, the company behind the Flow blockchain.

Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, said: “With over one billion cricket fans across ICC’s 105 member nations, Faze is revolutionising how cricket fans everywhere connect and engage with some of the greatest moments in cricket history. From NBA and WNBA to La Liga, NFL and UFC, we’re seeing sports fans across the globe adopt new dynamic fan-driven experiences on Flow, and I’m eager to see how cricket fans engage with NFTs.”

Shailesh Lakhani, MD, Sequoia India, said: “We believe that blockchains and user-centric design can come together to make for never-before-seen social experiences for digitally-native consumers. The team at Faze is creating Web 3.0 products that are fun, a little bit crazy, and very compelling. They are as simple to onboard and use as traditional Web 2.0 apps, which will enable mass appeal.”