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Yeolmae divides up ownership of artworks by famous artists such as this piece by Yayoi Kusama
South Korean startup Yeolmae Company announced Monday it received 17 billion won ($14 million) worth of funds through its Series B round. With the latest injection of funds, the company's accumulated funding amount stands at 27 billion won.
Yeolmae operates ArtnGuide, an online platform which allows users to pool money together to purchase famous art pieces with the aim of selling them at a premium later. Existing investors like SoftBank Ventures Asia, which is the corporate venture capital arm of SoftBank Group; Bass Investment; and KDB Capital Corp. continued their investments in this round.Uon Investment and Hanwha investment & Securities Co. jointly led a group of new investors as co-GPs or joint general partners. Other new investors in the Series B round are: DS Asset Management, Lotte Rental Co. and KT Investment Inc.Founded in 2016, Yeolmae Company divides up the ownership of artworks by famous artists such as Kim Whanki, Yayoi Kusama, David Hockney, and Pablo Picasso and makes the parts available for sale on the online platform.Investors say the company has made the alternative investments in visual arts more approachable to the general public, which used to be only for the wealthy. Users on the platform pool money together to purchase an artwork and when the piece goes up in value, it can be sold at a premium. The individual investors will then receive the differences.The platform has purchased a total of 33 billion won worth of famous artworks and sold 60% of them for profit so far. Yeolmae will use the fresh injection of funds to purchase up to 100 billion won worth of new artworks. Going forward, the company will also pursue an initial public offering to grow as a global art platform.By Jong Woo Kimjongwoo@hankyung.comJee Abbey Lee edited this article.
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