Rario Raises $120 Million In Series A Funding Round With Dream Capital's investment, Rario 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
By Saptak Bardhan •
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Rario on Thursday announced a $120 million Series A funding round led by Dream Capital. Rario 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 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 also participated in the round, and joins existing investors Animoca Brands, Presight Capital, and Kingsway Capital.
"Cricket is the 2nd 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," said, Ankit Wadhwa, Co-Founder & CEO, Rario
Non-fungible tokens, better known as NFTs have become a buzzword. Digital assets are amongst popular investment avenues in recent times. The global NFT market is expected to grow from $14.02 billion in 2021 to $21.33 billion in 2022 at a compounded annual growth rate of 52.1 per cent.
"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," said Dev Bajaj, chief strategy officer, Dream Sports.
The Singapore-based company, founded in 2021 by IIT Delhi alumni Ankit Wadhwa and Sunny Bhanot, 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 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.
