A web3 startup making NFTs of Picasso and M F Husain art, receives funding

• Dubai-based Artfi has raised a private funding round of $3.26 million.
  
• Retail investors can now own blue-chip artworks of Picasso, VS Gaitonde, M F Husain, Sacha Jafri, Banksy among others.
  
• The global art market has an estimated value of $65 billion.
  

Artfi, a Dubai-based blockchain NFT ecosystem received funds worth $3.26 million at a valuation of $100 million. Investors that participated in this round include Sheikha Hend Al Qassemi, a member of the ruling family of Sharjah; Raza Beig, director of Landmark Group, UAE among others.

Founded by art connoisseur Asif Kamal, this startup will concentrate on creating fine art NFTs. Artfi will use this capital to build a dedicated marketplace for fine art NFTs, as well as for product and team development.

“Artfi was launched with a vision to make art accessible to everyone. Each art piece that we bring and fractionalize into 5-10k NFTs will be priced at the real value of art with predefined coordinates and fraction number, unlike super inflated JPEG NFTs that are crashing badly today,” said Asif Kamal, founder and CEO of Artfi.

It is building fine arts NFTs which represent iconic blue-chip artworks of world-renowned artists like Picasso, VS Gaitonde, M F Husain, Sacha Jafri, Banksy among others. Blue-chip artworks are made by renowned artists.

The funding comes when NFT transaction activity has declined from $3.9 billion in February 2022 to less than $1 billion in March 2022.

“This is an opportunity for people to now diversify their portfolios from stocks, fixed deposits and invest in one of the largest asset classes that have outperformed all these traditional investments for over 30 years,” said Asif Kamal, founder and CEO of Artfi.

The global art market has a total estimated global sales of $65 billion, according to Statista. The fine art fintech company is also gearing up for whitelisting of its offerings from August — which means users get guaranteed early access.