Photo on Shutterstock
Unlike many sectors, the Art+Tech market thrived under pandemic conditions. During COVID, art-focused startups raised nearly 60% of the industry’s total investment over the last two decades. What kinds of new opportunities can investors expect in the years to come?
COVID-19 fast-forwarded the adoption of technology in many traditional markets, and art is no exception. According to Fuelarts, an accelerator fostering innovation in the art industry, Art+Tech startups raised $380 million since the beginning of 2020 alone. In comparison, over the last 20 years before the pandemic, art-fueled tech companies received $640 million.
In the first six months of the pandemic, art sellers and collectors were pushed into digital space. “Fairs went online, galleries mastered VR, and auction houses offered mixed bids combining art and luxury goods,” said Denis Belkevich, founder at Fuelarts. As a result, the demand for innovation in the art market flourished, attracting startups and venture capital.
New payment systems, Big Data, and instruments to help create, manage, and sell NFTs are just a few options for investors looking to take advantage of the Art+Tech boom. Here are some of the market’s most promising growth areas:
Multi-Gallery Platforms
Digital marketplaces, such as New York City-based online brokerage Artsy, are well-positioned for growth. These platforms attract online shoppers with a continuous change of offers, as well as a dynamic, informative way to represent art. Collectors also prefer marketplaces to the static online auctions offered by most galleries. Marketplaces have benefited most from the NFT hype: Sales of digital collectibles surged to $10.7 billion in Q3, up from $1.3 billion in Q2.
Visualization
Until 2020, VR and AR projects in the art industry often lacked a clear business strategy, since they were primarily favored by non-profit institutions, museums, or foundations. COVID-19 fast-tracked the creation of new tools, such as All World, a platform allowing artists to upload and sell their work via AR.
Gamify
Starting with the gamification of NFTs in museum collections as a way to attract Gen Z, Gamify is a powerful new trend to explore. During the pandemic, gamers have been transitioning into artistic spaces, importing their tastes, preferences, and budgets into those spaces as well. According to Fuelarts, this trend looks likely to continue in the future.
Art Analytics
Technology for predicting artists’ future sales without auction history is evolving. Collectors can now receive insights based on large amounts of data. In 2020, the Phillips auction house announced an exclusive partnership with Articker, a new market-tracking tool analyzing artist trends that can affect how artworks are appraised. Identifying the correlation between NFT prices and the physical art world would be the next step for these tracking tools.
Risk Management
In 2021, new financial instruments for the art industry emerged, including auction guarantees, resale of liabilities, and various art derivatives. These tools are in demand among experienced investors. The booming digital collectibles market is also in desperate need of risk assessment tools. In the future, according to Fuelarts, investors can expect more transparency and regulation for NFTs, as well more opportunities for Art + Fintech.
See more from Benzinga
Click here for options trades from Benzinga
Exclusive: Evil Ape Tricks in the Garden of NFTs
Buy Shares Of A Bored Ape Yacht Club For : Rally Continues NFT Offerings For Investors
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
It was a fun night, even if Serese ended up staying up a bit past her bedtime — but some causes like this are so important they're worth sacrificing a little bit of sleep.
The links between the human body and technology, and designers’ efforts to make socially responsible clothing are considered in the show.
A revival of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” with Laurence Fishburne, Sam Rockwell and Darren Criss was in rehearsal when the pandemic closed Broadway theaters. The Neil Pepe-directed production on Friday announced its intention to return to the Circle in the Square Theatre next year. “American Buffalo” is a heist comedy about three small-time criminals hoping to steal a possibly valuable nickel, but its also a no-holds-barred portrait of lowlife desperation and greed.
While Robinson plc ( LON:RBN ) might not be the most widely known stock at the moment, it saw significant share price…
It looks like Chris Curtis' last-minute weight cut for UFC Fight Night 194 was for naught.
Here is how you can tune in to the game if you can't make it to Lexington.
The England last week admitted he did not know how many of his players had received both doses of the vaccine.
More than two dozen little-known works by the boxing legend sold in a New York auction held by Bonhams on Tuesday.
Sophisticated investors are turning to alternative investments for higher potential returns and to diversify their portfolios with assets that have little correlation with the stock market. One type of alternative investment that is attracting increased interest is contemporary artwork. This isn’t surprising considering that this asset class is estimated to be worth $1.7 trillion and with a 14% annual return over the last 25 years, according to research conducted by Masterworks, and 23% annual r
Often overlooked, Verplanck, New York, is a quiet hamlet along the Hudson with a beautiful new art museum dedicated to a talented Japanese American artist
Wolfgang Beltracchi, one of the most infamous art forgers of all time, is entering the NFT world. Beltracchi is behind a project labelled ‘The Greats’ which consists of 4,608 NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.
Many Batman villains have made it to live-action TV and film, but these seven bad guys are still waiting in the wings. We hope they show up soon. The post 7 Batman Villains Still Waiting for Live-Action Debuts appeared first on Nerdist.
Theater actor Sharon D Clarke was raised on classic movie musicals but struggled to picture herself as an actor. “My mom loved Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly. We watched all of those,” she says. “But there wasn’t much diversity.” After watching “West Side Story,” which featured prominent characters of color, a world […]
Grom Social Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: GROM) shares are trading higher after the company announced its wholly-owned subsidiary, Top Draw Animation, has commenced production on approximately $1 million in new projects through its sprawling studio in Manila, the Philippines. The assignments, two recurring episodic animated TV series, bolster the studio's output and leverage the expertise of Top Draw's animation professionals as well as Russell Hicks and Jared Wolfson, the studio's newly installed
How Important is Taiwan? On it's own, very important. As home to Taiwan Semiconductor? Invaluable.
U.S. stocks dipped on Friday after data showed jobs growth in September was weaker than expected, yet investors still expected the Federal Reserve to begin tapering asset purchases this year. This exerted pressure on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, which went into negative territory. Most of the 11 major S&P sectors fell, with real estate and materials the deepest decliners, each down about 0.6%.
The U.S. employment rate drops more than expected
Lucid Motors stock debuted in late July, surging 10%, and was one of the most highly anticipated IPOs of 2021. But is LCID stock a buy now?
Oct.08 — "Bloomberg Markets: Americas" with Alix Steel and Guy Johnson welcomed Elise Gould, Economic Policy Institute Senior Economist, to discuss the jobs report which came in well under estimates.
Crypto-focused bank Silvergate’s (NYSE: SI) stock climbed 7.6% after Morgan Stanley outlined a bullish thesis for the bank based on the potential for further stablecoin adoption. “As the stablecoin market continues to develop, with more formalized rules around governance, risk management and structure, it could provide sizable upside potential to our Silvergate earnings per share (EPS) estimates, particularly if Silvergate is able to monetize their relationships with the stablecoin issuers,” Morgan Stanley analyst Ken Zerbe wrote in a note. The assessment cites a new report from the Bank for International Settlements that could serve as a roadmap for regulating fiat-pegged crypto assets.