Montreal Tech Watch

Raymond Luk, from Flow Ventures, announced an investment in a 2nd startup called Art AnyWhere.

Art Anywhere is an artwork rental service, matching any artist and individuals wishing to decorate their home or offices.

Behind the startup is Christine Renaud, known by a few Montreal entrepreneurs for e180, another education web venture which she headed for the past year. I am also sure Raymond Luk is also heavily involved in Art Anywhere, at least on the core idea, business and strategy side.

I have to say the simplicity of the idea is elegant, one of those ideas where I’m certainly eager to try it out. Even though it’s a different industry, this reminds me strongly of netflix’s DVD shipping service, where subscribers get to keep a fixed number of DVDs home, with netflix taking care of logistics, and also taking care of the DVD supply and the recommendation algorithm, so that their users get the best DVD for them.

Of course, this service supposes that inviduals rent, not because of the object’s monetary value, but because of art and the quality of the art work, leaving out people attracted to art because of the rarity and because other people would envy them.

Congrats both to Raymond Luk and Christine Renaud, wishing both of them all the bests!