Wallto, a startup that connects coffee shops with artists so that both can get more exposure, finished top of Startup Weekend Art London at Wayra.
The team of 9, the biggest in the 54-hour competition, won $20,000 worth of credit on Google Cloud Platform as well as a one-hour coaching session from Bethnal Green Ventures.
Startup Weekend
The competition, part of the Startup Weekend series, focused on encouraging tech-based entrepreneurship in the arts.
The ten participating teams had 54 hours to plan, create, and develop their business concept before pitching to a panel of judges.
Judges included Tak Lo, director at Techstars and Kati Price, Head of Digital Media at the V&A.
The startups
A number of prizes were up for grabs and judges were impressed by the calibre of startup that was developed.
Best Business Model went to Nymphea, a crowdfunding platform for museums focused on donations from art lovers who want to see their favourite works restored and exhibited.
Another startup to impress the judges was Tuor, who won Best Pitch.
Tuor uses augmented reality show buyers see what a painting would look like on their wall before deciding to make the purchase.
Bringing tech to art
The weekend saw art and tech clash as startups attempted to get the best out of both worlds.
Event director Luba Elliott explained that so far “the art industry has been low in technological and business innovation”.
With this event, we encouraged participants to bring their ideas and experiences from the arts and other industries to start new companies and solve some of the most pressing problems in the art world.
Images credit to Andrew Crowe (brainfloat.com)