FanCraze

FanCraze is a cricket-focused digital collectibles company that builds products around officially licensed content from International Cricket Council events, including the ICC Men's and Women's Cricket World Cups, T20 World Cups and U-19 World Cups. Its website presents a single account with two products: Grails, a collector-oriented product in which users "pull" a collectible from a claw with disclosed odds, reveal an officially licensed ICC video moment, keep it or sell it back at what the company describes as fair market value, and trade with other fans to complete themed boxes; and Matchday, a free-to-play fantasy-style game in which a user's owned collectibles function as players for squad selection across live matches and tournaments, with daily challenges and a simulated "field legends" matchday feature.

The company was earlier known as Faze Technologies and originally positioned itself as the builder of the ICC's official NFT ecosystem. In January 2022 it released 75 non-fungible tokens of moments from the ICC Men's World Cup and made a trading marketplace live on its website, allowing holders to build collections across a match or series, trade with other fans globally, gain opportunities to interact with cricketers, and use holdings in planned play-to-earn games. Reported plans at the time of its 2022 financing included expanding a cricket "metaverse," integrating additional sports relationships, and building out an R&D lab, gaming studio, marketplace platform and user experience, engineering, marketing and customer success teams.

Press coverage identifies Anshum Bhambri as chief executive officer and co-founder, alongside co-founders Sundar Raman — described as the founding COO of the Indian Premier League and former CEO of Reliance Sports — and Kushagra Kohli.

Founding story

Inc42 reports the company was founded by Anshum Bhambri, Sundar Raman — the founding chief operating officer of the Indian Premier League and a former CEO of Reliance Sports — and Kushagra Kohli; the founding year is given in that source as "201", an evidently truncated figure, so no reliable founding year can be stated [3].

Business model

FanCraze distributes officially licensed ICC cricket video moments as digital collectibles that users acquire through randomized "pulls" with stated odds, can sell back to the platform at market value, or trade peer-to-peer to complete sets and themed boxes; a companion free-to-play fantasy product, Matchday, uses those owned collectibles as playable assets [0][1]. Earlier coverage describes the same core as an NFT collecting and trading marketplace tied to an exclusive ICC partnership, with planned play-to-earn games and utilities [2][3].

Not explicitly stated in the sources. The described mechanics involve users purchasing collectible "pulls" and trading on the platform's marketplace, with the platform buying collectibles back at market value [0][1]; earlier coverage refers to a marketplace where fans buy, trade and craft NFTs [2][3].

Traction

Public traction detail is limited in the available sources. The company states on its site that it has raised more than $100 million from its backers [0][1]. Reported milestones include the January 2022 drop of 75 ICC Men's World Cup moment NFTs and the launch of its trading marketplace in the same month [2][3].

Latest developments

The current website markets Grails and Matchday as its two products, with a newly noted Matchday feature described as "Field legends" matchday simulation, and references an IND vs AUS ODI World Cup context [0][1]. The site states the company has raised over $100 million [0][1].