Auction management software platform Artisio hammers out £250,000 investment

Artisio, complete front to back auction management solution, has secured £250,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by early-stage focused venture capital firm Jenson Funding Partners. The funding will help Artisio reach a global auction market looking to streamline the way online auctions are run.

The auction industry has been poorly served in terms of innovation, and the systems required by auction businesses are often fragmented. This means auction businesses typically rely on multiple services for clients, which then requires them to manually handle sale information from different vendors in order to upload it to back-office systems. This makes processes slow and inefficient, as auctioneers are required to manage multiple streams of data on third party platforms, from initially uploading product data to downloading sale information, which then has to be uploaded to process individual invoices for each lot. Rather than a single front-to-back stream, the current system leads to pain points and burdensome management of communication and data processing. On average, it takes 30 to 40 minutes to process a single lot from receipt to payment, resulting in an inefficient use of resources.

Founded in 2020 by Berdia Qamarauli and Suri Amarasinghe, Artisio addresses these pain points through automation, streamlining the auction system by bringing all processes, including bidding, into one place. The solution is customisable to an auction house’s needs, whilst integrating seamlessly into any currently implemented systems. Full automation with Artisio means that auction businesses can carry out tasks and bidding in an all-in-one admin panel that can be tailored to specific needs.

Since launching, Artisio has signed up 15 auction businesses. These include 167-year-old London rare stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons, 151-year-old coin and medal specialist dealer Baldwin’s, and major retail returns platform BPI Auctions, which launched in 2010. The company has also onboarded four international clients, and is working with several online auction providers including The Saleroom, StreamBid and AI email marketing platform Artbrain. Artisio also has its sights set on expanding to the US market and aims to launch a self-onboarding platform to accelerate the process for new clients.

Berdia Qamarauli, Founder and CEO of Artisio, says: “I’ve worked in the auction industry for over a decade and have experienced the frustration of the outdated system first hand, from the legacy technology, to the consequences of this on customer experience. Artisio was formed to alleviate these issues. Our all-in-one panel means that customers can automate complex processes and easily communicate with vendors, rather than having to navigate multiple streams of communication and data. Within the industry, there are many verticals that need to be accounted for, but there’s a lack of solutions that can be used across the board. We’re excited to develop a solution that can be used by all verticals in the auction industry, streamlining time consuming and complicated processes.”

Sarah Barber, CEO of Jenson Funding Partners, adds: “The auction industry like any other has its own list of unique problems, but a notable lack of solutions. Artisio is disrupting this legacy sector with a product made for auction houses, by a team that have experienced the problems first-hand. For a market that’s worth over $5bn, there are surprisingly few innovative auction technology solutions out there, so it’s with great pleasure that we’re investing in a business that is one of the first. As we see the rise of auctionable assets in the metaverse, like NFTs, it’s time that modern solutions take hold.”