Cricket NFT Startup Rario Bags $120 Mn From Dream Capital, Others To Secure Additional Rights

Cricket non-fungible tokens (NFTs) startup Rario has secured $120 Mn led by Dream Capital, the corporate venture capital and M&A arm of unicorn Dream Sports.

Alpha Wave Global (previously Falcon Edge Capital) also participated in the round, and now joins existing investors Animoca Brands (Global leader in Web3 gaming), Presight Capital, and Kingsway Capital, according to a press statement. 

The NFT startup will use the funds to secure additional rights and build more products, it said.

The Singapore-based startup claims to have the largest share of cricket NFT rights globally via partnerships with six international cricket leagues and a roster of more than 900 cricketers across the world. With this investment, Rario gets access to Dream Sports’ 140 Mn users, who will be offered FIAT-only products in India.

Founded in 2021 by Sunny Bhanot and Ankit Wadhwa, 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. 

With Rario, fans can buy, sell, and trade NFTs through FIAT-only mediums – credit cards, debit cards, and bank transfers. 

Since inception, Rario has sold more than 50,000 NFTs to fans across 20 countries with the US, the UK, Australia, and India as its top four markets.

“Cricket is the second largest sport in the world with more than 1.5 Bn 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 Mn sports fans on Dream Sports,” said Ankit Wadhwa, cofounder and CEO, Rario.  

Rario has signed a multi-year exclusive partnership with Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association to create an Australian cricket metaverse of collectibles and gaming.

The startup has been able to secure the most comprehensive set of rights including the rights of players, Wadhwa added.

“Dream Capital 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. 

Furthermore, transactions on NFT marketplaces usually happen using cryptocurrencies, but Rario is trying to build a framework for transactions and purchasing NFTs that is conducive to the present regulatory environment in India.

Meanwhile, gains from trading NFTs will be taxed at 30%, as per new guidelines of the central government. The government has already imposed 1% TDS on crypto transactions and 30% tax on income from crypto from April 2022, as reported by Inc42.

The GST Council is working on classifying cryptocurrency as goods or services to bring it under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) law; in turn, planning to levy on the entire value of transactions.

Meanwhile, the government also proposed a 1% TDS on crypto payments over INR 10,000 in a year and also, imposing it on those who receive cryptocurrencies as a gift. This provision will come into effect from 1 July 2022 while the gains will be levied from April 1 2022. It further announced that the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will be rolled out by 2022-2023.

The Reserve Bank of India has openly raised its concerns over private digital currencies, equating them with Ponzi schemes and said they were a threat to financial sovereignty. 

Meanwhile, another player in the NFT segment Fan Craze raised $100 Mn in a funding round in March 2022 led by New York-based global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, with participation from B Capital.