Faze Technologies announces $17.4m in seed funding from Tiger Global

Faze Technologies, a startup that builds fun consumer experiences on top of public blockchains, announced today that it has raised $17.4m in a seed round of funding led by Tiger Global with participation from Coatue and Sequoia Capital India. Its other investors in the round include Dapper Labs, Samsung Next, Courtside Ventures, as well as Vivek Ranadive. 

Faze concurrently announced its partnership with the International Cricket Council (ICC) to create exclusive digital collectibles (using NFTs) for cricket to launch on the Flow blockchain. The startup 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. 

“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 Anshum Bhambri, CEO of Faze Technologies. 

With access to both current content and a rich archive of historical moments, the new experience will help consumers to deep dive into the most-talked about plays from ICC events. The product will also give aficionados a way to be a part of the in-match action. Through a variety of fan activations developed around marquee matches, cricket lovers will be able to enter contests to be in with a chance of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Think about getting to view that much-awaited ICC World Cup Final match from a VIP spot in the hospitality box, or interacting with your favourite cricketer one-on-one!

Faze’s goal is to establish a new paradigm that creates a direct connection between the creator and the consumer built on three tenets: (1) True ownership and the ability to showcase the NFTs on social media; (2) Pack buying and the peer-to-peer trading experience; (3) A play-to-earn universe where the core mechanics and economy are built around owning, crafting, and battling of NFTs. 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 democratization of business models emerging in this arena.”

Faze has entered into a strategic partnership with Dapper Labs which is building similar experiences for leading sports leagues and federations in the world. “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. “With over one billion cricket fans across ICC’s 105 member nations, Faze is revolutionizing 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.”  

“We’ve seen first-hand from our experience partnering with Dapper Labs the power of blockchain-enabled gaming, sports and collectibles. Faze is bringing this model to cricket fans all over the world and validating the power of Flow as a platform,” added Dan Rose, Chairman, Coatue Ventures.

Shailesh Lakhani, MD, Sequoia India remarked, “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, and will take cricket fandom to the next level with access to amazing features, activations, and community engagement that place fans at the center of the sport.