Verisart, the pioneer of blockchain-based certification for the arts and collectibles market, has raised $2.5 million in seed financing. The round was led by Galaxy Digital EOS VC Fund with further investment from existing investors Sinai Ventures and Rhodium. The funding will enable Verisart to expand its commercial platform for authentication and further contribute to the art world.
In 2015, Verisart became the first company to apply blockchain technology to the physical art and collectibles market. In recent years, Verisart has since partnered with several art industry stakeholders, including eBay, Art Systems and the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) as well as working with some of the world’s best known artists including Ai Wei Wei and Shepard Fairey to certify their works of art.
In 2018, Verisart won the ‘Hottest Blockchain DApp’ award at The Europas, the European tech startup awards. In 2019, Verisart became the first blockchain certification provider on Shopify. The Verisart Shopify app is now available to over 600,000 stores as an easy way to offer digital certification for limited editions, artworks and collectibles.
Co-Founder and CEO Robert Norton said, “With this new round of funding, we’re able to scale our business and ramp up our partnership integrations. The art world is quickly realizing that blockchain provides a new standard in provenance and record keeping and we’re looking forward to extending these services to the industry.”
The funding will go towards extending the product and engineering team and launching a suite of premium services aimed at artists, galleries and collectors. The company recently appointed Paul Duncan, formerly the founding CTO of Borro, the online lending platform for luxury assets, to lead the engineering team. Further senior management announcements are expected to follow.
Verisart is a founding member of the Arts Innovators Alliance, an alliance of forward-thinking art businesses committed to advancing the art industry through innovation and technology.
About Verisart
Verisart is the world’s leading platform to certify and verify artworks and collectibles using blockchain technology. Verisart provides a decentralized title registry combining security, transparency and anonymity to increase trust and liquidity in the art market. The company binds museum grade certification standards, distributed ledger technology and image recognition under one platform and is used by prominent artists, galleries, museums and auction houses. www.verisart.com
About Galaxy EOS VC Fund
The $325mm Galaxy EOS VC Fund (the “Fund”) is a partnership between Galaxy Digital, a leading blockchain focused merchant bank, and Block.one, the publisher of EOSIO, a next-generation, open source blockchain protocol designed to be adapted and utilized to create a more secure and transparent digital infrastructure. The Fund invests broadly across the interactive entertainment landscape in order to drive mass adoption of blockchain technology globally and to build out the EOSIO ecosystem.
About Sinai Ventures
Sinai Ventures invests in software and technology companies at all stages. Within its three years of operation, the firm has become one of the most active VCs in the United States.
About Rhodium
Rhodium is a private investing firm, focusing on high growth cutting-edge opportunities in the fields of Digital Media, Internet, Mobile and new technologies in general. Our mission is to identify the most promising entrepreneurs and help them to build thriving disruptive, world-changing companies. Rhodium supports entrepreneurs and strengthens their ventures with its resources: funding, broad management expertise and an extensive valuable network of business contacts around the globe. Rhodium strategically invests in a handful of promising companies each year in order to be actively involved in creating the optimal environment for them to successfully transform into world-class business ventures. Rhodium is partnering with talented entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into industry-leading companies that will impact our world. Rhodium’s Investment Portfolio includes Yotpo, Outbrain, Yieldmo, IMGN Media, etc.
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