ArtSmiley

ArtSmiley, aimed at resolving the problems of emerging artists and art buyers fr om home decor to corporate offices.

ArtSmiley is a multisided online community which connects both artists and art buyers in one platform, wh ere;

a) Artists can rent and sell their paintings.
b) Art buyers can view, buy or rent their choice of painting from a large collection.

“In a nutshell we consider ourselves as Amazon of artworks”.

We have launched our platform, www.artsmiley.com, for more than a year in operation. Today the platform has more than 1200 registered emerging artists from over 50 countries and 3000+ collection of artworks.

Also, we have close to 100 customers from both B2C and B2B. We have partnership with Doubletree by Hilton hotels in Dubai to showcase our works. Also, we have approved vendors for the supply of artworks with Shurooq investments group, Gulf court hotels, Borouge group, Abu Hassan contracting, etc.,

The business also have early revenues of $40k in the last 12 months with no paid marketing.

Opportunity in the art market is huge, the global art market valued at $64.1B, in which the online art market is $5.9B (9%) in 2019. Global sales of art down by 5% year on year in 2019, however, the online art market is growing rapidly, it is expected to grow 100% in 5 Years from 4.64B in 2018 to 9.32B by 2024, this growth predicted before COVID and now with a pandemic lot of physical galleries closing down and the online market growth is much higher than expected.

Globally art market registered 40.5M transactions in 2019, a 2% increase year on year, highest in a decade.

Another end global wall décor marked valued $51B in 2018, expected to grow over 9% in the next 5 years, Artsmiley’s products fit the broader requirements of the wall and home décor markets too.

Artsmiely targeting a 1% market share of the global online art market i.e. approx. $60m in the next 5 years.

The traditional art market is predominantly controlled by art galleries, these are always not accessible to upcoming artists and they are often perceived as high cost, high end spaces only suited for few. This leaves emerging artists to have no easy way to sell their arts and gain exposure.

On the other hand, finding good quality and affordable unique pieces of art is not always easy. Also, there are no economical options for customers to decorate walls on a regular basis.

In summary, we are addressing the problems of emerging artists, who are been neglected by traditional galleries and Artsmiley helps them to build their careers. Also for art buyers, we are providing affordable unique pieces of art from emerging talent with an option to rent.

Good news, Artsmiley addresses the above-mentioned problems. ArtSmiley is a multisided online community which connects both artists and art buyers in one platform, where;

a) Artists can sell and rent their paintings.
b) Art buyers can view, buy, or rent their choice of painting from a large collection within a few clicks and works delivered to their doorsteps without any hassle.

“In a nutshell, we consider ourselves as Amazon of artworks”.

Artsmiley competes with the number of players in this market, however, their main competitors in online marketing are Saatchi, Art.com (especially in wall décor), Artsy, etc., other than these there some local online/offline galleries too considered as competitors.

Even though Christie, Sotheby ‘s are two major high-end auction houses, they can be considered as competitors on lower-end fine art.

Our key competitive advantages include;

• We are first to market in art rentals in the Middle East & South Asia region
• In partnership with colleges, universities and local communities we are aiming to introduce unique, unseen artworks from hidden talent
• Adaptation of blockchain technology to authenticate art, cryptocurrencies will put us ahead of our competition
• The platform is easy to use for both artists and buyers

Artsmiley makes money by taking 35% commission on sale of every painting and every piece of art rentals. Also, we charge a 25% commission on all our partner services like printing, framing & delivery.

With the availability of funds Artsmiley expected to make a revenue of just over $2m in Year 1. With the compound annual growth rate of 131%, the business expected to make a revenue of over $60M in 5 years.

Artsmiley targeting for 37,000 transactions (just 1% of global online transactions) in 5 years, each transaction value expected to be $1600 and revenue close to $60M.

Artsmiley provides services to both B2B and B2C, this includes individual home decorators, hospitality clients, property developers, corporate houses, etc.,

We aim to increase our market share using three pillars of marketing and reach out to the wider audience of buyers from art collectors, interior designers to corporate houses.

Pillar 1: participation in art fairs around the world
Pillar 2: partnerships with artists, galleries, auction houses etc.,
Pillar 3: important being an online gallery is to do extensive digital marketing this includes SEO, google ads, social media campaigns etc.,

These three pillars help us in marketing and reach out to wider artists and art buyers.

The investment will be spent on up-gradation of our website and app development using the latest technologies, hiring of IT, digital marketing professionals, operational resources & to spend extensively in marketing.

In return, we are looking to give equity of 10 to 20% in our business ArtSmiley depends on the investment.

The major risk will be future competitors (new entrants) could be clones of “ArtSmiley”, possibly an attempt to duplicate the business model and launch it on a wider scale.

In order to keep the business sustainable ArtSmiley will invest in maintaining strong relationships with its customers, identifying their needs, and making sure to offer a great experience.

More demanding customers will have an opportunity to be connected with art consultants to support them in identifying their needs, and sourcing art pieces from our database.

Local established galleries that want to migrate to an online platform also offer the risk of becoming a competitor.

To tackle these issues, ArtSmiley will work on developing partnerships with local galleries in order to be their online distribution channel and transform risk into an opportunity for both companies.

We will also invest in customized technology specific to Artsmiley using blockchain, AI for improving customer satisfaction, which will surely keep us ahead of our competition.

Part of the cohort in Prepare 4VC accelerator program

None.