NFT startup Rario loses founders after $120M funding last year: Report

Rario, a Polygon-based platform issuing cricket-related nonfungible tokens (NFTs), has reportedly seen its founders leave the firm after two years after launching. Rario CEO Ankit Wadhwa and chief technology officer Sunny Bhanot are being pushed out as investors at the startup take greater control, TechCrunch reported on Sept. 8.

Dream11, a major Indian fantasy sports platform and the largest backer of Rario, is also being ousted, according to the report. A number of roles are being removed as part of other restructuring efforts as well.

Besides Dream11, Rario has several other prominent investors, including the global investment company Alpha Wave Global and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. In April 2022, the cricket NFT platform raised $120 million in a Series A funding round, claiming that it had the largest share of cricket NFT rights, with 900 cricketers at the time.

This latest reported shakeup comes amid Dream11’s parent firm, Dream Sports, allegedly making efforts to reduce costs at the company. According to TechCrunch, Dream Sports is currently negotiating many of the licensing deals that Rario had signed to cut the expenses.

At the time of writing, the reported changes are not reflected on the executives’ LinkedIn profiles. Rario and Dream11 did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Rario was founded in 2021 with a mission to create digital cricket collectibles and help fans engage as an online community. As of April 2021, the firm said it sold 50,000 NFTs to sports fans across 20 countries.

Some of the cricket leagues signed by Rario include Cricket Australia, the Australian Cricketers’ Association, the Caribbean Premier League, the Lanka Premier League and Abu Dhabi T10 League Legends League Cricket.