LONDON.- Vastari Group, the London-based technology company providing networking platforms between museums and collectors for temporary exhibitions, has completed a significant seed funding round in January 2016 valuing the company in excess of $2.3m.
The new investors, from England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA, include well-known technology venture capitalists as well as important art collectors, who together understood the vision for Vastari’s non-partisan exhibition marketplace and loan matchmaker and are enthusiastic to partake in its success.
“This investment will provide us with the capital needed to develop our immediate product growth, as well as sustain the business’s runway for at least two years”, says Vastari Group Executive Director Francesca Polo.
The company is planning to develop three strands of the business that complement each other: access to private collections, marketing touring exhibitions and networking for art-world expertise.
Their existing platform, Vastari.com, connects collectors and museums within an anonymised and secure online environment. This product will continue to be developed, adding new features with partners in the art world. (Upcoming partnerships are still confidential, but for a preview of what they might be considering, see their Partners page).
When it comes to touring exhibitions, the team will release a platform for museum statistics on past and future exhibitions to add onto their existing VTEN platform. Existing VTEN clients expressed an interest in receiving more information about the success of the exhibitions they were marketing, and the regions around the world who are most likely to want to collaborate on them. Vastari’s tools will offer up-to-date reporting on the success of shows and which museums are interested worldwide.
Lastly, Vastari Group will be launching a new expert network named “Vastari Professionals ”, which will help museums and collectors link with experts in the field while sharing their objects and ready-made exhibitions. As more and more exhibitions require freelance expertise in order to take place, Vastari Professionals will offer the arts and culture sector with a verified listing of experts available for future shows.
“The future of art and technology is a fully integrated experience”, says Bernadine Brocker, Vastari Group’s CEO, “where collectors, museums and experts can connect, curate, tour their shows and define best practices within international relationships.” “Moreover, major deals mean we have already met our sales target for 2016, and we’re only in February” explains Polo.
Now under the name Vastari Group, the company completed a major restructuring in May 2015, which included a management takeover of the business, “which completely reinvigorating our efforts”, Brocker states, “we listened to what museums and collectors really needed and pointed our noses in that direction”.
“Company turnover has grown exponentially over the past few months meaning that it was a logical time to raise capital and expand the business further”, Polo adds proudly.
Museums and collectors looking to find out more about the platform should register on vastari.com, or contact +44 207 846 0088 for more details.
