The New York-based art-shipping start-up Arta has raised $1m in new venture capital. The funding round was led by art-world investors such as David Zwirner gallery, Sotheby’s, the artist Rashid Johnson and the collectors Poju and Anita Zabludowicz, along with more traditional tech investors, such as Graph Ventures and Alex Chung, the founder of Giphy, a platform for sharing gifs. Arta, which had its debut at New York’s Armory Show in 2015, seeks to disrupt the art-shipping business. It enables shipping companies in various cities to submit estimates for art-shipping jobs, thereby simplifying the process of getting quotes. Arta’s chief executive and founder, Adam Fields—formerly of the online art dealing start-up Artspace—says he is pleased with the diversity of sources for the new investment. “It says a lot about the validity of the business,” he says. Arta is already used by Sean Kelly Gallery, White Cube, Marlborough Chelsea and David Zwirner. “We like entrepreneurial spirit,” says Julia Joern, a partner at David Zwirner. “We were happy to support it.”
