Arthena YC Application

Winter 2017Acquired

Arthena went through Y Combinator in the Winter 2017 batch as a Fintech company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Winter 2017
Industry: FintechAsset Management
Team size: 12
Status: Acquired
Launched: 2016

Founders

Madelaine D'AngeloFounder/CEO
Michael DAngeloCo-Founder & CTO

What Arthena does

Arthena is a financial product that gives you access to the alternative asset class with the highest barrier to entry and strongest historical returns. We invest in the most liquid segment of the art market, with the lowest volatility, yielding tremendous growth uncorrelated to traditional investments. Arthena’s automated and data driven investment strategy regulates art investment by building traditional fund structures. HNWI’s can now securely and confidently diversify their portfolios into alternative assets focusing on the luxury market. Arthena has designed and built a statistically rigorous model that estimates the value of artwork over time. Since the data we obtain derives from auction records and repeat sales, our model relies on a set of features about each result. These features include include the artist’s name, medium, date of creation, origin of location and size of work. After identifying groups of work that are similar to each other, we calculate the expected ROI and estimated volatility based on the distribution of gains. Using historical auction results to simulate the performance of our funds, we leverage Monte Carlo analysis to determine annualized returns and sharpe ratios. Based on this analysis, Arthena can validate the financial viability of our product and establish statistically rigorous bounds for these estimates.

Arthena's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

Arthena, Winter 2017 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

Arthena

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Quantitative Investment in Art Assets

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We built a data-driven financial product that lets high net worth individuals invest in art as an alternative asset. Our model uses auction sales data and features like artist, medium, and size to estimate ROI and volatility, enabling investors to diversify with more confidence.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live in New York, NY, and the company is based there as well.

Explain your decision regarding location.

New York is a natural fit because it's the center for art markets and finance, letting us directly access data, buyers, and collectors.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real Arthena YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from Arthena's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like Arthena would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.