Early Spotify Investor Contributes to Blockchain Art Registry in $7 Mln Funding Round

The blockchain-based art registry startup Artory has reportedly raised over $7 million in Series A funding round from an early Spotify investor among others. The development was announced by art-focused publication the Art Newspaper on April 22.

Artory — ledger of which enables users to trace provenance and title data, as well as record sales of works of art —  has reportedly secured $7.3 million from a group of investors, including private investing firm 2020 Ventures, which backed Swedish audio streaming platform Spotify, American logistics company Postmates, and luxury goods resale platform The RealReal.

Nanne Dekking, the founder of the project, said that the funds will be allocated for further improvement of the registry’s data and development of the platform’s functionality. Dekking said that they are “are building something that has to be vetted, accurate and easily searchable to show the depth of information behind every artwork.”

David Williams, the general partner of 2020 Ventures, told the Art Newspaper that the firm is fond of platforms that “open large markets to a broader range of participants and transactions.”

In late March,  Artory acquired auction house database Auction Club, a subscription-only database containing sales information from more than 4,000 international auction houses. The move is ostensibly set to make Auction Club’s sales data — reportedly gathered from around 250 businesses in 40 countries — public for the first time.

Last October, Christie’s auction house announced a pilot scheme with Artory to deploy blockchain technology for auction data. The partnership proposed using the technology to provide details and certificates of purchases to buyers.