Web3 company FanCraze set to launch player cards of four IPL teams

Web3.0 company FanCraze Software Pvt. Ltd. is set to launch player cards of four Indian Premier League teams - Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals, and Lucknow Super Giants- for the metaverse.

The company had earlier launched products like video moments ‘ICC Crictos’ and ‘FanCraze Flash’ (own-to-play gaming experience) in cricket. It said owning these cards will allow fans to connect to their favourite IPL teams and they could build a collection and trade cards etc.

As part of this launch, FanCraze the company will add Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants to its roster of partners that include IPL teams Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals, the International Cricket Council, the Asian Cricket Council, Cricket West Indies, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, and 30 other players from the sport.

In March this year, the company had raised $100 million in a funding round which was led by private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners and saw participation from B Capital. In 2021, it also had a $17.4 million seed round led by Tiger Global. That one saw participation from Coatue, Sequoia India, and Dapper Labs, among others.

Anshum Bhambri, CEO of the firm said, “We continue to pioneer innovations in sports-based digital collectibles adding to our cricket marketplace. We’re excited to be partners with the teams to launch Indian cricket’s first digital collectibles.” The first edition of the cards will go on sale this month, he added.

The firm was set up in 2001 by Bhambri, Sundar Raman, who was the founding chief operating officer of the IPL as well as Kushagra Kohli. FanCraze competes with cricket NFT platform Rario which was founded in 2021 by IIT Alumni Ankit Wadhwa and Sunny Bhanot, and has partnerships with Cricket Australia, Hero Caribbean Premier League, Lanka Premier League, Abu Dhabi T10 League, Legends League Cricket, among others.