Niio, the World's Leading Platform for Digital Art Engagement, Announces $15M A-Round and Strategic Partnership with Samsung Displays

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Niio, who is connecting a world ready to experience art digitally with artists who have important things to say, today announced two significant funding and distribution milestones.

Today's news recognizes the combination of Niio's innovation, and the renown that it has earned in the artist community, as the surge of interest in digital art has elevated the company to the partner of choice for both Samsung and a collection of visionary investors at the intersection of art, technology, collecting, and consumer experiences. 

Respect and support for the creative community – Niio will be free for all artists, forever – is core to the Company's mission; this includes artists' ability to publish, manage and protect their life's work. Driven by that, the company has been responsible for the growing recognition of digital and video artists by museums, art fairs and collectors, as well as public curators and the expanding NFT community. 

Niio will use its capital to grow its artist community and scale its app-enabled subscription and purchase platform, which is blockchain based and will include a trading-enabled marketplace for NFTs and other digital art assets. As Niio advances its rapid scaling, it will continue to bring together and empower all stakeholders - including those artists, galleries, curators, museums and collectors: the entire ecosystem of those who create, consume, and display digital art:

• Consumers use Niio's open platform to experience digital art, whether purchased on Niio or elsewhere, with access to a free and paid subscription which is similar to music and entertainment streaming services. They can curate their own "art streams" and share the works that move them, with others. 

• With Niio, artists have an end-to-end solution that enables them to realise the full potential of their digital art and NFTs. This is important because artists often find themselves lost in the complexities of seizing the opportunities – and protecting their work - in these entirely new outlets for their creativity. 

Through Niio's accessible solution, artists can easily self-publish their works, no matter where and how they were created; control a personal repository; and monetize their work publicly and privately.  To make that possible, Niio enables them to reach both individual collectors and art enthusiasts, as well as commercial customers who are displaying public art via projections on mega-LED screens and video walls – always as the artist intended.

• Niio's business customers – like Virgin, Marriott and Mandarin Oriental – rely on the Company to deliver commercial rights, scheduling and management tools for 24/7 display of Niio Art.  Public installations, luxury brands and others can all have access to beautifully curated art, illuminating tens of millions of dead spaces and dark screens with a range of artistic expressiveness that can be experienced digitally for the first time.

Investors in the A-round include L Catterton, (a joint venture between LVMH and Catterton), SAGA Invest and existing investors Entrée Capital and PICO Venture Partners. In addition, reflecting Niio's convergence of art, technology, entertainment and consumer experiences, additional investors include Shalom Mckenzie – who recently purchased a Cryptopunk at Sotheby's for $11.75M, as well as other major global collectors, gallerists and trustees at institutions such as the MOMA and Guggenheim.

"The digital art space has long been on our radar at L Catterton. We are very bullish on its future, and our ongoing evaluation of the sector brought us to Niio," said Michael Falletto, Managing Partner L Catteron's Growth Fund. "We are convinced that their platform approach – including both subscription and an NFT offering – combined with the reputation they have built in the critical artist community and the validation from their partnership with Samsung, - will make them a market leader."

Millions of Samsung Screens Will be Poised and Ready for Niio and The Art Community

With millions of Niio-ready, Tizen OS-enabled screens, the high-performance presentation of premium art on Samsung's best-in-class display products truly solves the challenge of accessing and displaying digital art on any screen. This presents massive new distribution reach and business potential for Niio.

"Samsung is constantly looking for new ways to allow businesses to engage customers, while remaining true to their core values" said Hyesung Ha, Senior Vice President of Samsung's Visual Display Business. "This partnership with Niio will allow users to transform their spaces with stunning, versatile digital canvases that display the very best in digital art."

"This is a transformative moment for Niio and the world," said co-founder and CEO Rob Anders. "Our end-to-end solution, which includes subscription, purchase, sharing and trading is truly differentiated. We have the ability to reach millions with a diversity of artists and of digital experiences – including NFTs – that will enable us to capitalize on this threshold moment to benefit all stakeholders, including our world-class investors who have come together from different backgrounds to support Niio. We thank them for their confidence, and we are similarly honored that Samsung has chosen us as their digital art partner."

Oren Moshe, co-founder of Niio added his sentiments. 

"We've have realized our vision for a platform that first and foremost empowers artists and enables their work to be experienced digitally and available globally. We are gratified by the trust that more than 6,000 artists have placed in us, as we enable them to publish, manage, protect and monetize their life's work. Without them – and the parallel validation of the art community including museums, collectors, curators and galleries – we would not be in the position we are, with the support of wonderful investors and Samsung."

About Us

Niio is the world's most complete and open digital art ecosystem – which includes NFTs – all curated and display-ready through the Niio app. Our heart and soul is a global community of 7,500 galleries, institutions and artists – from renowned to emerging – the full-range of screen-based creative expression. We give them the tools they require, to distribute, manage, monetize and preserve their work through our platform and the blockchain.  Diverse audiences can be inspired by, subscribe to, or purchase from this unprecedented repository, which is available on monitors, phones, and public art installations. We market directly to discerning individuals –who are seeking new experiences – for themselves and to share, and businesses and municipalities who want to transform their space. Everywhere there's a screen, there's an opportunity for art to move people. 

SOURCE Niio