KAZoART: At the crossroads between art lovers and talented artists

Mathilde Le Roy is the founder of KAZoART, a marketplace that connects art lovers eager to buy unique works of art at affordable prices, with talented artists who are often unrecognized: “The idea came to me because a few years ago, I struggled to find an offer that suited me when I wanted to buy an original work of art, having back then neither knowledge of art nor a very high budget. On the art market, we have to face either a very ‘elitist’ offer made by galleries and auction houses, where, if you are not knowledgeable and do not have a high budget, you do not dare to approach and the offer is impossible to decrypt. On the other side, there has been a democratisation of the decoration offer, with mass-merchandisers that are selling framed reproductions. But there is no offer today allowing you to simply purchase something original, unique, that comes from an artist with whom you have had the opportunity to talk.”

KAZoART wants to change the rules of the art market by removing intermediaries and allowing art lovers to directly look online and discover artists offering their works at reasonable prices: “KAZoART aims at giving access to eager buyers to a large and varied range of artists from all over France (and tomorrow the whole world) and at giving them the opportunity to be discovered in a few clicks without ever leaving home.”

To increase her business’ liquidity, Mathilde secured an EU-supported loan provided through France Active and backed by EIF.

For the future, Mathilde and her four employees plan to further develop the business’ activity by targeting an international audience, by promoting an online ‘Art advisory’ service made by in-house art advisors, to help people find the right artwork, and by developing a B2B activity for businesses who want to buy or rent artworks for their workspace.

Company: KAZoART (France)

Type of business: Online art platform

EIF financing: COSME LGF

Financial intermediary: France Active

For further information about EIF intermediaries in France, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/fr