Kanvas.ai announced becoming the first Baltic art NFT marketplace to offer art NFTs created on the Tezos blockchain. The Estonian art startup offers a curated platform for art NFT collectors with the support of the Tezos Foundation.
Kanvas.ai is the first art start-up in Estonia that offers artists, collectors and galleries various technical solutions built on Tezos: a virtual buying and selling environment, collectors’ secondary market, online exhibitions, opportunities to use NFTs and augmented reality technology.
“Our platform offers these opportunities to artists and galleries, and thus art reaches a much wider audience. With the help of the investment, we can develop the technical side related to NFTs and expand to other European countries as well” stated Astrid Laupmaa, co-founder and CEO of Kanvas.ai. “We are delighted to now offer art NFTs created on Tezos. In addition, we look forward to joining the thriving Tezos art community and to become part of such a supportive creative ecosystem” said Laupmaa.
According to Laupmaa, Kanvas.ai has not received any major funding rounds so far, as the company’s focus has been on developing appropriate technology. The Tezos Foundation’s investment allows the company to build new technology on the platform, after which Kanvas.ai plans to conduct a larger investment round. The first angel investors of the platform were Sonny Aswani, Marek Pärtel and Julian Kaljuvee, active as investors in the landscape of Estonian startups.
Kanvas.ai expands the possibilities for artists with the help of the NFT technology
Among other things, the Kanvas.ai platform offers art NFTs. NFTs are based on blockchain technology, which makes the files unique and inimitable. NFTs can be considered a certificate that guarantees the authenticity of any work. NFT technology creates many new possibilities for art: NFT can be an independent virtual work of art, a certificate for a physical work of art, a video file, an AI work of art, or a ticket that guarantees entry to an artist’s new exhibition.
NFT art ensures the authenticity of the work, it also helps artists to increase their income. “The use of NFT technology solves the problem in the art world where the artist is left out of the sales chain. This allows artists to create a network, communicate with buyers and monitor the movement of their work. On our platform, when artists sell virtual art, they receive a 10% commission on each transaction – even if the work is sold on the secondary market, the artist also gets a share of it,” said Laupmaa.
At the moment, 75 professional artists from around the world including Estonia’s Raoul Kurvitz, Vilen Künnapu and Kaupo Kikkas , and 20 collectors have joined the Kanvas.ai platform. The company has also held exhibitions with several local galleries, such as Põhjala Gallery, Telliskivi Creative Campus and Solaris Gallery.
