Meural, a company innovating at the intersection of art and technology, and creators of the only gesture-controlled digital art frame on the market, today announced the close of $5 million in Series A funding, bringing the total funds raised to date to $9 million. The round is led by Corigin Ventures, with participation from NETGEAR, Resolute Venture Partners, and angel investors including Elio Leoni Sceti and Eric Ries. This funding round is Meural's second helmed by Corigin Ventures, which previously led a seed funding round of $3 million in April 2016. The investment news comes on the heels of the October release of the second generation of the Meural Canvas, a new brand identity, and a membership model to unlock full access to Meural's art library, my.meural. Meural plans on using the latest round of capital to fund new product development, support manufacturing and marketing, and significantly expand their art library to include new works from world-class artists and cultural institutions around the world.

"Since we first encountered Meural, we've seen the company grow from an ambitious idea to a fully-realized, boundary-breaking product unlike anything else on the market, with a dynamic platform to match," says David Goldberg, General Partner at Corigin Ventures. "The traction that the product has seen among consumers has been remarkable. We believe that the Meural Canvas is the next great consumer electronics product, and look forward to supporting Meural's entrance into this pivotal phase."


In conjunction with the closing of the round, and just in time for the holiday season, Meural will be introducing its flagship product, the Meural Canvas, in 137 brick and mortar retailers across six countries (U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, France, and the Netherlands), including, with retail partner b8ta, the most visited store on earth-Macy's Herald Square.
Adorama, 1 store
b8ta, 8 stores, including Macy's Herald Square
Batch, 1 store
Best Buy Canada, 26 stores
Lowe's Smart Home, powered by b8ta, 70 stores
Micro Center, 25 stores
Smartech, 5 stores: Selfridges (U.K), KaDeWe (Germany), de Bijenkorf (The Netherlands), Le Bon Marché (France)
Target Open House, 1 store

The Meural Canvas is a pioneering, Wi-Fi-connected digital frame differentiated by Meural's signature TrueArt technology-a meticulously-engineered combination of hardware, firmware, and algorithmic software which renders art and photography as vividly textured as a museum original. The Meural Canvas allows users to instantly display works from Meural's art library, my.meural-a searchable, curated library of tens of thousands of licensed artworks, designed to spark discovery and provide limitless opportunities for home customization-or upload and curate their own personal art and photography. The Canvas is easily controlled via the Meural mobile app or with gesture control; a wave of the hand allows users to browse individual artworks and curated playlists, as well as access settings. The new Meural Membership provides users unlimited access to Meural's art library, and supports Meural's continued commitment to fair compensation for artists and rights holders.


"In our first two and a half years of business, the Meural Canvas has reached walls in 60 countries, and grown to thousands of active users," says Vladimir Vukicevic, Meural CEO and Co-Founder. "We've seen that both visual art and technology act as universal languages. Because of our unique position at the intersection of these two disciplines, we feel confident in our product's ability to connect with audiences on a global scale. We're thrilled to join forces with retail partners who believe in the market appeal of the Meural Canvas, and will act as ambassadors for our mission of democratizing art across the world."

"We've always known that the Meural Canvas is something that needs to be experienced in person. The magic of discovering art on the Meural Canvas with a wave of your hand, and experiencing famous artworks in such lifelike detail, is something that can only come from an in-person interaction with the product," says Jerry Hu, Meural CRO and Co-Founder. "We believe that our launch in retail stores, along with this new round of funding, will be the fuel that takes us further into mainstream adoption, and drives us closer to our vision of bringing art into every home."

To learn more about Meural, visit meural.com, and explore Meural's library at my.meural.com.

ABOUT MEURAL:
Meural combines the best of art, technology, and design to create products that make us feel something. We are building a future in which art lives in every home, and everyone can become a patron of the arts.


Our first product is the Meural Canvas: a smart frame designed with Meural's proprietary TrueArt technology-a combination of hardware, firmware, and algorithmic software meticulously-engineered to display rich and vividly textured art and photography.

The Meural Canvas can be easily controlled via gesture (a wave of the hand) or mobile app, and acts as a conduit to our expansive art library, my.meural.com-an expertly-curated and ever-growing collection of artworks sourced from the catalogues of leading museums, collections, and artists, and spanning the past, present, and future of art.

Meural was founded in 2014 by longtime friends Vladimir Vukicevic and Jerry Hu, in response to the art community's need for a dynamic and modern platform. Incubated out of an artists' collective on New York's Lower East Side, supporting artists remains central to the way we do business. The Meural Canvas now lives on thousands of walls across the world. Follow Meural on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest @meetmeural.