Nick Candy backs start-up that can predict which artists will be successful

Nick Candy and his wife Holly Valance

Property mogul Nick Candy has joined the board of a start-up which claims it can predict the success of contemporary artists and help collectors discover them. 

Mr Candy has been added as a director of Collectability, following an investment by his business Candy Ventures into the start-up.

The company has developed a platform which uses machine learning and ‘art-world knowledge’ to predict whether artists will be successful, pooling in data around things such as whether any of their work had been selected by auction house specialists or art gallery owners, or whether art magazines had written about their work.

It says it offers "data-driven art advisory", claiming that "better information yields more informed collecting decisions". The ranking is not expected to be available to anyone, but only to a certain number of clients, including Mr Candy. 

The business was founded by contemporary art expert Jordan Harris and Tom Parimozic, a machine learning specialist, last year. 

A spokeswoman for Mr Candy said: "Nick Candy is committed to championing young entrepreneurs and as an avid art collector himself, he was keen to support this exciting venture at an early stage."

She declined to disclose the size of the investment. Collectability remains in ‘stealth mode’, where progress is kept quiet. 

Mr Candy is best known as a property tycoon, but Collectability is not the first tech business Mr Candy has backed.

He notably bought collapsed tech unicorn Blippar out of administration in early 2019. The augmented reality start-up had collapsed after an investor dispute prevented it from raising new cash.

Mr Candy paid just £450,000 for the intellectual property assets of Blippar. The company had been valued at $500m after a funding round in 2016, and was reported to have been valued in an acquisition approach at as much as $1.5bn.

It relaunched last year, and has since appointed a new boss, a new chief financial officer and a new chief commercial officer.

Mr Candy has also made investments into earlier stage businesses, with names including Vibe Group, a payments and ticketing start-up. Following a round last year, Candy Ventures held a 23pc stake in Vibe Group