[London, ENGLAND] Venture capital firm
Vertex Management
has put $4 million into U.K-based art site
eyestorm
which sells limited-edition photographs of modern
art.
The latest round of funding brings the total raised
by eyestorm to $11 million. A substantial amount
has already been spent on designing one of the
Internet’s more intriguing Web sites, featuring some
spectacular portfolios of modern art.
Frankie Tan, senior vice president of Vertex, said
that eyestorm’s concept of bringing art by well-known
names into homes across the globe was an ingenious one.
He insisted that eyestorm had proven management and
what he called “online market leadership.”
“In expanding our e-commerce portfolio we have been
careful not to succumb to the recent craze of Internet
funding, but focused on companies with solid business models,”
said Tan.
The venture capital arm of Singapore Technologies Group,
Vertex has now invested over $600 million in more than
200 companies. Of these, 56 companies have been fully
divested or listed in U.S., Europe, Taiwan and Singapore
Stock Exchanges.
One of the artists featured on eyestorm is Andy Goldsworthy,
who gained national publicity last week when his
controversial artwork of giant Scottish snowballs was placed
in the streets of London after being kept in cold storage
since the winter. Visitors to eyestorm.com can see
photographs of this project and other Goldsworthy sculptures
priced at between $500 and $10,000.
Don Smith, chief executive officer of eyestorm, said the
capital infusion of $4 million would enable expansion
of the marketing infrastructure and allow eyestorm to
work with more artists.