“Innovative” London startup secures £250k funding to expand into US market

Artisio, a London based auction management solution, has secured £250k 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 company believes that 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.

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.com, 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Artisio,commented: “I’ve worked in the auction industry for over a decade and have experienced the frustration of the outdated system first hand, from the legacy technology, to the consequences of this on customer experience.

“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.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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