Exclusive: World Art Community raises $200K from Viraj Tyagi and another angel investor

Gurgaon-based Inventive Business Promotions Pvt Ltd which owns and operates online platform for art and craft goods, World Art Community has raised $200,000 from serial entrepreneur and angel investor Viraj Tyagi and another unidentified investor, the company told Techcircle.in.

The firm will use the funds for technology enhancement and customer acquisition.

The startup was founded in December 2014 by IIT alumnus Shobhit Arora who has previously worked with GE and Standard Chartered Bank. He was leading divisions such as sales and marketing in both the organisations.

The startup enables artists, craftspersons and designers to create their own online stores and sell their creations. It charges 10 per cent commission on every successful transaction through its platform.

"We have been focused on building and curating the right set of partners and products. Within three months, we have over 150 partner-artists and designers on board with over 2,000 unique creations. We expect this funding to drive rapid growth and enable reaching out to a discerning audience who truly appreciate unique, handcrafted creations," Arora said.

"I've always been a strong proponent of marketplace model purely for the reasons of scalability and sustainability. The arts and design market provides significant opportunity for growth, especially for a country like India," said Tyagi. He is founder and CEO of Nettpositive which recently got acquired by Global Information Provider, Equifax.

The website has eight categories listed on its website including painting, photography, drawing and illustration, sculpture and pottery.

Earlier this year, another online platform selling art goods, Anasha Art raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Praveen Sinha, co-founder and managing director of lifestyle e-tailer Jabong.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)