This online art gallery is using blockchain to ensure authenticity of artworks

Popular belief dictates that one has to be sophisticated in certain ways to visit art galleries and exhibitions, which keeps a major chunk of the population away from engaging with art and artists. 

Vaishnavi Murali noted this during her MBA years at the Indian School of Business (ISB) as well as the need for a relaxed and more accessible way of bringing art to the general public. 

“A newbie who does not know too much would need a bit of hand holding and pricing is a much debated subject. So, you don’t want to walk into a gallery and start at minus one,” she tells HerStory. 

This led her to start Eikowa as a platform to enable easier access to art online in 2015. The entrepreneur made $80,000 in the first 10 months. Today, Vaishnavi continues to leverage technology to ensure a seamless art viewing and purchasing experience. 

She says Eikowa has now become the first platform to introduce blockchain technology for provenance in art in India. It has gone beyond catering to B2C buyers online and ventured into B2B business as well.

ALSO READ

[HS Exclusive] How NagaEd became the first Nagaland startup to attract FDI

The journey 

Vaishnavi, a 30 Under 30 personality on Forbes Asia, is a self-proclaimed art enthusiast. At 18, she indulged in painting saris and sold them for about a year. She says entrepreneurship has always been on her mind since then and the MBA years drew her close to art. 

“There was a lot of interesting art in the campus and I wondered where one goes to buy them because it was not easy to find art and artists back then. As I started digging deeper, I saw how the process is and I discovered that it is actually quite difficult to interact with many galleries and to understand art,” she says.

In 2015, Vaishnavi says, it made sense to start Eikowa because the customers looking to purchase art were changing. 

According to her, while most art galleries were restricted to metros like Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi, many people across Tier II and III cities as well as the Indian diaspora in the US, Singapore, and London want to purchase Indian artworks, but don’t have access. 

However, noting that some clients prefer to touch and feel the paintings and other form of art before purchasing, Eikowa arranged viewings in different cities.  

Merging tech and art

In 2019, Eikowa introduced an augmented reality (AR) feature on the website that allows a client to see how a painting would fit on their walls in real time. Users just need to take a photo of their wall, upload it on the website, and see the result.

Vaishnavi says the art market is plagued with a lot of fakes and authenticity is key when people are spending a significant amount. Eikowa is addressing the problem by incorporating blockchain technology to ensure that for artists and buyers on Eikowa.

While there have been many cases of forged paintings as well as certifications, she says blockchain technology offers an extra layer of protection with a unique Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) code behind a painting. “If the SHA code doesn’t match, then you have an authenticity problem,” she says.

ALSO READ

LinkedIn report says 7 in 10 working women in India quit or consider quitting their jobs due to lack of flexibility

The business model

At present, Eikowa features paintings, serigraphs, and sculptures by over 80 artists including MF Hussain, Jatin Das, Raja Ravi Verma, and Manish Sharma, among others. While the platform makes suggestions if certain work looks under or overpriced, the artists take the final call on pricing. 

At the same time, the platform does not reveal all its collections online. Vaishnavi, who personally attends to all purchasing deals on the platform, shows certain artworks based on the customer’s choice and taste. 

While Eikowa earns commission on sale of each artwork, its other source of revenue is B2B partnerships.

It started working with different five star hotels via B2B partnership where Eikowa would do their spaces or offer consultation for the same. It has curated and executed art for clients like Hilton in Goa, ITC in Guntur and Bhubaneswar, ITC Ahmedabad, which is set to open soon, and ITC Chennai, which is undergoing renovation at the moment. 

Working on a dual business model helped Eikowa sustain through some uncertain times. During the period after demonetisation, people were rarely purchasing art for personal use and B2B services helped Eikowa grow. 

Similarly, as companies were cutting costs during the pandemic, Eikowa had little B2B deals, but demand from B2C customers increased. 

Eikowa shares the art-tech marketspace with other players like MyIndianArt and Gallerist. Vaishnavi says,

“Art is a rather small market, but the potential for growth is huge and one must make it convenient by speaking the customer’s language.” 

The entrepreneur believes technology can do that.