Faze Technologies, a start-up that builds consumer experiences on top of public blockchains has raised $17.4 million in a seed round of funding led by Tiger Global with participation from Coatue and Sequoia Capital India.

Other investors including Dapper Labs, Samsung Next, Courtside Ventures, as well as Vivek Ranadive’s Bow Capital also participated in the round. The start-up concurrently announced its partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to create exclusive digital collectables (using non-fungible tokens (NFTs)) for cricket to launch on the Flow blockchain.

Faze is founded by Anshum Bhambri, a Stanford-grad and Wall Street veteran, Sundar Raman, the founding COO of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and ex-CEO of Reliance Sports, and Kushagra Kohli, a serial entrepreneur and graduate of Duke University.

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“Our mission is to build the metaverse for cricket. We are in a unique position to combine NFTs, gaming, 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 Anshum Bhambri, CEO of Faze Technologies.

The new experience is meant to help consumers deep-dive into the most-talked-about plays from ICC events. The product will also give fans a way to be a part of the in-match action.

Faze is aiming to create a direct connection between the creator and the consumer built on three tenets- true ownership and the ability to showcase the NFTs on social media, pack buying and the peer-to-peer trading experience and a play-to-earn universe where the core mechanics and economy are built around owning, crafting, and battling of NFTs, it explained.

Unaiz Kabani, Partner at Tiger Global said, “We’re excited to support Faze and its vision of athletes as artists who create collectable moments through memorable plays on the field. With its talented management team and strong partnerships, Faze will accelerate the democratisation of business models emerging in this arena.”

Faze has entered into a strategic partnership with Dapper Labs which is building similar experiences for sports leagues and federations across the globe.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Faze to launch the ultimate cricket fan experience with the ICC on Flow,” said Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs. 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,” Gharegozlou added.

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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.”

The exclusive NFT experience is open for early registrations on Flow. It will provide users with access to various features, activations, and community engagement for fans of the sport.

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