Online art gallery Artzolo in talks to raise upto $200,000

Funds will be used to build tech team, expand its offerings

ArtZolo.com, an online marketplace for art discovery and curation, is in talks with angel investors and high net worth individuals to raise up to $200,000 in what would be called a bridge round of funding, said Vishal Singhal, co-founder.

This round of funding will be a preamble to the series-A round that will soon follow, he said. The funds will be used to build the technology team, market business, and expand offering in the US.

ArtZolo allows emerging and established artists to exhibit, promote, and sell their works to art aficionados.

The marketplace is a product of Singhal Labs, formed in Kochi in October 2013. The company, established in 2014 and based out of Mumbai, has seen a lot of traction from Dubai, US and enquiries from Australia.

It has hosted a number of reputed artists on its platform including Veroniqe piaser moyen, Marco Antonio Abbagnara and Jose Higuera. It has a total of about 500 artists from India and abroad.

Of late, the online retail company has seen a surge in sign ups. Singhal attributes this to the increasing faith among customers as the company moved from a business-centric platform to consumer-centric one.

“Over an year, the sold articles have garnered a lot of faith from our customers,” he quipped in.

Currently, Artzolo has monthly gross sales of about Rs 2.5 lakh with an average ticket size of Rs 20,000-35,000. Singhal said his company has grown more than 50% in terms of art works in the past three months.

Recently, Artzolo was also granted loan by SIDBI and it is looking to scale up the business by partnering with hotels and other enterprises.