[StartupRecipe] Spotlight on Art Tech Platforms

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[April.29 ~ May. 3]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of the week is KRW 135.4 Billion.

Company	Inudustry	Amount	Round	Investors
Wilco	Thermo-Guardian Sheet	-	Pre-Series A	Deakyo Investment
Allmytour	Travel	1 billion	Pre-Series A	Shinhan Venture Investment, Korea Investment Accelerator
Surff	Fright transport	-	Seed	Korea Investment Accelerator
VtoV	Delivery	10 billion
Avelos Therapeutics	Bio	17 billion	Series B	Starset Investment, Medytox Venture Investment,Shinhan Capital, LSK Investment, Heungkuk Securities, SV Investment, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Quad Asset Management, Timefolio Capital
Papa market	Online food market	-		Hite Jinro
BOS Semiconductors	Fabless	-		Atinum Investment
Rootembio	Health Functional food	1 billion	Seed	Behigh Investment
276 holdings	Fintech	-	Pre-Series A2	Sui Generis Partners
Aiz Entertainment	AI Content	6 billion		LB Investment, Stonebridge Ventures
ANPOLY	NANO CELLULOSE	-		Hyosung Ventures
Second Eureka	Franchise builder	-	Pre-Series A	KimGisa Lab
Pillsang	Security	-	Pre-Series A	Gravity Ventures
Didim365	MPS	-		Navercloud
01republic	B2B SaaS	-	Seed	Mashup Ventures
BFAI	AI Solution	-	Seed	Korea Investment Accelerator
GGtics	Game	-	M&A	Gen.G Esports
Dewcell Biotherapeutics	Bio	9 billion		Partners Investment, KDB Development Bank, Heungkuk Securities, Shinhan Capital, KIBO
Nullee	Tax	5 billion	Series B	Smilegate Investment, Woori Venture Partners, KB Securities
Modusign	Electronic contract	17.7 billion	Series C	SBVA, ATINUM Investment

#Major Funding

• Modusign, an electronic contract SaaS compay, has secured 17.7 billion won in investment. The company’s services allow users to create legally binding contracts through dedicated links via email, KakaoTalk, and other channels. As of April of this year, Modusign has secured 270,000 corporate customers.
• B2B logistics startup VtoV has secured 10 billion won in investment. The company operates To-day, an optimal route delivery service. VtoV plans to use the investment to expand its customer base among e-commerce businesses.

#Trend Analysis

Spotlight on Art Tech Platforms

The digital transformation of the art market accelerates, and art tech startups like art trading and investment platforms are flourishing. Even in Korea, where the art market has flourished, reaching the trillion-dollar mark, art trading platforms have been on the rise for several years, although their number remains modest.

Including Yeolmae Company (Art & Guide), an investment platform that allows you to invest in parts of artworks, a significant amount of funding of KRW 42.7 billion was received in 2022. However, funding dropped to less than KRW 10 billion last year due to a general decline in the investment market and a sluggish art market caused by the economic downturn.

This year, however, the first quarter alone saw more investment than the entirety of the previous year. Excitement is building as new platforms continue to emerge. These platforms play a crucial role in transforming the art market. Not only do they move offline transactions online, but they also make the art market accessible to everyone, democratizing it by eliminating information asymmetry and enabling people to buy and invest in artworks with smaller amounts of money.

In Korea, investment platforms allowing fractional ownership of artworks are particularly popular, and the market is expected to grow further as the government promotes legislation for fractional investment in artworks based on token securities. In April, Tessa, a blue-chip art investment platform, secured KRW 8.8 billion from securities firms and others. They have made it easy for users to connect their accounts with securities firms and invest directly within the app.

The constant emergence of new platforms underscores the projected growth of the art market. Charrt, which recently received an initial investment from 500 Global, is an art resale platform targeting art collectors and the secondary market. It offers automatic art matching, authenticity appraisal, shipping, and settlement, and is growing rapidly, having surpassed KRW 2.6 billion in cumulative transactions within 10 months of launching its paid service.

LeMusee, which secured seed investment in January, is a digital art marketplace that helps K-art go global. This platform introduces only Korean artists’ works to global collectors and allows them to view and purchase offline exhibitions in real time on an online platform. Another platform, MISULLO, is an art management platform that keeps artworks in an optimal environment and plans to grow into an integrated art management platform.

Currently, art investment platforms are attracting the most attention from investors in Korea, but technological advancements and the growing interest in art among Generation MZ are expected to lead to the emergence of more related startups and market growth. Of course, there are many challenges, such as creating a safe environment for investment and verifying the authenticity of artworks. However, these platforms are changing the way art is consumed and the investment paradigm, and are expected to continue to attract interest from investors.