Alliance Entertainment backs art trading-card startup ArtPics with $500K
What's the deal? Alliance Entertainment has made a $500,000 strategic investment in ArtPics, leading the startup's current funding round. The investment came through a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) and builds on an existing commercial relationship between the two companies.
What's the endgame? Founded by collectibles entrepreneur and artist Gareb Shamus, ArtPics brings original fine art to the trading-card format. Each card is a unique work created directly by an artist, rather than a print or reproduction, pairing original art ownership with the collectibility of trading cards.
Why now? ArtPics already uses Endstate Authentic's NFC technology to link physical cards with digital authentication and ownership records, and it recently extended that partnership for two more years. Alliance — a NASDAQ-listed commerce and collectibles platform reaching more than 35,000 retail and e-commerce storefronts — sees room to expand ArtPics through its retail, distribution, and direct-to-consumer fulfillment capabilities.
By the numbers: Alliance's collectibles revenue rose 45% to $32 million in fiscal 2026, though it remains a small part of its business. The investment extends its push into premium, authenticated collectibles, where it already uses NFC-based authentication through its Endstate platform.
"ArtPics brings together two passionate collecting communities: Fine Art and trading cards," said Jeff Walker, chief executive officer of Alliance Entertainment. "What makes this particularly compelling for us is that ArtPics is already using Endstate Authentic's technology to authenticate these one-of-a-kind works."
Shamus said the companies are "combining original art, the excitement of trading cards, and physical ownership supported by digital authentication and provenance records to create an entirely new collecting experience."
The signal: The deal is a targeted strategic bet rather than a major financing event; ArtPics' valuation and the round's total size were not disclosed. It lands amid continued interest in original art — global art sales rose 4% to an estimated $59.6 billion in 2025, per the Art BaselDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026 — and growing demand for one-of-a-kind pieces, which 43% of surveyed high-net-worth collectors ranked as the most important attribute of art ownership.
Read more: marketscreener.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
