Digital collectibles firm FranCraze secures $100m in Insight Partners-led funding

FanCraze, the next-generation digital collectibles (NFT) company based in India, announced that it has raised $100 million in Series A funding.

The newly-raised capital will be used to fund FanCraze’s continued expansion of its metaverse across the cricket landscape for current and emerging partners. The funding round was led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, with participation from B Capital. Additionally, Mirae Financial, Tiger Global, Coatue Management, Sequoia Capital India, Courtside Ventures, and CR7, S.A., (owned by Cristiano Ronaldo) also invested in the round.

FanCraze is building the International Cricket Council’s official NFT ecosystem to deepen fans’ love of the sport. FanCraze plans to use the new funds to integrate new sports relationships and to accelerate the growth of its global team and capabilities across its R&D lab, user experience team, gaming studio, and marketplace platform where fans can buy, trade, and craft their NFTs.

Funds will also be used to scale the company’s engineering, marketing, and customer success teams as the company expands its tech-centric offering to build the overall fan experience. The company’s current partners include the ICC, Cricket West Indies (CWI), and a number of notable cricketers including Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Muthiah Muralidaran, Jonty Rhodes, Shikhar Dhawan, Andre Russell, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Yuzvendra Chahal.

“NFTs are fast becoming a movement and are enabling a direct relationship between all types of IP owners and their fans. NFTs represent culture and FanCraze is building an experience that would enable fans to collect cricket NFTs, engage with play-to-earn games and utilities, and own digital land,” said Anshum Bhambri, CEO of FanCraze.

“FanCraze’s marketplace went live in early February and has already recorded millions of dollars in revenue while it is still in early beta. We’re thrilled to continue partnering with the leading sports leagues around the world to engage fans through the next generation of sports-based assets as we create the future of fandom together in the metaverse,” he added.