Photo by Steve Shane Foundation’s gallery and collector liaison Amanda Coulson and managing partner Uli Voges
Basically Ulrich Voges has launched a factoring company for galleries i.e You can turn your invoices into cast a.s.a.p minus a commission (see below for details).
“It’s an incubator for a certain kind of gallery,” said Foundation co-founder Ulrich Voges, who also launched Volta in 2005 with Amanda Coulson. Big galleries don’t need extra capital, and private lenders already exist to serve the blue-chip secondary market. But, to date, no entrepreneur has risked advancing cash to the lower-end galleries on the primary market.
“What’s important to these galleries is cash flow, the liquidity,” Voges said. “What you really need on your daily basis is always something you have to fight for.”
So far, Foundation, which Voges founded alongside Coulson, Karl Rheinberger, Tobias Kirchhofer, and Philipp von Ilberg, has raised €800,000, and plans to be operational with that budget in time for Art Cologne in April. At that point, any of its 100 member galleries can approach Foundation on a deal-by-deal basis and, if it approves the sale, the gallery will receive a 90-percent advance within 48 hours. Foundation keeps 3.8 percent for itself — slightly more than what a credit card company typically charges merchants. More info at artinfo.com
