Rario founders exit NFT startup

Co-founders of the sports NFT-project Rario, Ankit Vadhva and Sunny Bhanot, left the project after two years due to disagreements with investors. TechCrunch reports.

Vadhva served as Chief Executive Officer, and Bhanot — CTO.

According to insiders, the executives made this decision because the startup’s largest sponsor, Dream11, was interfering too much in the running of the business.

As part of broader changes at Rario, other staff could also face cuts.

Meanwhile, Dream Sports, the parent company of Dream11, is discussing cuts to corporate spending. The organisation has initiated discussions with numerous partners to address the issue.

Rario is currently working with Tendulkar, Cricket Australia, the IPL franchises Gujarat Titans, Punjab Kings, Abu Dhabi T10, and the Hero Caribbean Premier League and the Lanka Premier League.

In April 2022, the NFT platform closed a Series A funding round of $120 million. Prior to that, the startup was backed by Animoca Brands, Presight Capital and Kingsway Capital.

Sources said that trading activity on the marketplace has recently declined significantly due to the protracted downturn in the economy.

Founded in 2021, Rario targets cricket enthusiasts. The project team also signed a multi-year exclusive deal with the Cricket Australia federation to create a themed metaverse.

In August, the trading volume on the NFT marketplace OpenSea fell to $106 million—the lowest in the last two years.

Earlier, the rare NFT #8585 from the BAYC collection was sold for a record-low 153 ETH (~$254,000). The asset has lost 80% in value over 11 months.

In June, total royalty payouts across NFT collections fell to a two-year low — nearly 1000 ETH.