Madelaine D’Angelo has been incubating Arthena as a crowd-sourced series of art funds backing advisors and dedicated collectors. The company held an event recently in New York to launch publicly:

After emerging from the accelerator program, Arthena raised a $1 million seed investment round, led by Foundation Capital with help from Aslanoba Capital, Beamonte Investments, C15 Ventures, and 2020 Ventures. After working under the radar for several months to build the platform, Arthena is starting to be more public.

On Thursday, D’Angelo and her team rented space in the WeWork at Bryant Park for an elite panel discussion aimed at private family foundations she hopes will become investors through the site. More than 100 people attended. “I hope this is not just an investment, but that we’re teaching people how to collect,” she said during a break from setting up the event. “I think that’s kind of being diminished with the emergence of all these e-commerce platforms.”

D’Angelo is focused on art for the foreseeable future, but she has designs on a much bigger concept: Crowdfunding for any tangible property. Think fine wine, cars, sculptures, the list goes on.

Fine art crowdfunding site Arthena hopes to yield big returns, art appreciation for the masses