Going Once, Going Twice, Sold! Peggy Paves the Way for the Artist Royalty Movement

Toronto-based start-up Peggy brings the art world to your fingertips. With Peggy, co-founders Craig Follett and Adam Meghji provide a digital marketplace for buying and selling contemporary art. Peggy partners with more than 30 galleries across the world, such as Art Basel and targets two-dimensional paintings created in the past 25 years or by living artists.
At the close of 2022, Peggy raised $10.8 million CAD in an equity seed funding round led by Real Ventures. Following this success, Peggy emphasized that “collecting art is proven to be an investment that is stable, reliable, and hedges against unpredictable market conditions and downturns.” As art continues to be a powerful medium for storytelling and expression, Peggy aims to create a more accessible and equitable art ecosystem for emerging artists. For example, Peggy helps artists monetize their art as it is disseminated to the public and sold to future buyers. Peggy offers artists 5% of any subsequent resales of their art on Peggy’s secondary market.
The art business commonly involves complex questions of authenticity and ownership. To maintain security and trust, Peggy developed patent-pending AI to create digital fingerprints that authenticate the identity of platform participants. Once captured by the platform user’s smartphone camera, these fingerprints are used to register transfers of ownership between sales and can be traced back to the original creator of the work for royalties. Through this process, Peggy users can curate unique collections while the creator benefits from the increased and fluctuating value of their work.
As Peggy continues to ease the process of market entry for artists, the start-up is set to fulfill its mission of a “world with art in every home”.
Image by https://unsplash.com/@kellitungay
Authors
Expertise
Insights
-
Technology
PolicyMe Raises C$30 million to Revolutionize Digital Insurance
PolicyMe, a Canadian digital insurance provider, recently announced the successful close of C$30 million in new funding, building off of its C$3.3 million Seed Round (2020) and C$18 million Series A… -
Energy
Supreme Court of Canada Interprets the Telecommunications Act
In Telus Communications Inc. v. Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Supreme Court of Canada considered the correct interpretation of the term “transmission line”, as used in sections 43 and… -
Technology
Twelve Labs Develops Enhanced Search Capabilities in Video AI
In the fast-evolving field of artificial intelligence, a new frontier is emerging: video understanding. Jae Lee, co-founder of Twelve Labs, believes that AI models adept at interpreting videos as well… -
Technology
LED Me Be: The Busy Bar Tells Your Coworkers You’re Tied Up
Have you ever been in an online meeting with your headphones on, and wished that your coworkers could read your mind and stop coming to your desk with questions? The team at Flipper Devices know this… -
Technology
Lights, Camera, Cycle: Garmin’s New Headlight Records While You Bike
Garmin is levelling up its biking equipment with Varia Vue, a headlight equipped with a front-facing, video-recording camera. The technology is similar to the “dash cam” feature for vehicles. While… -
Technology
Nanoprecise Sci Corp closes US$38 million Series C Round
Nanoprecise Sci Corp. (“Nanoprecise”), an Edmonton-based leader in AI-driven predictive maintenance, recently secured a US$38 million Series C equity and debt funding round. The round was led by…