NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Srikaran Masabathula (Sri) is the founder and CEO of TapArt – an online art market focused on empowering galleries and independent artists in emerging economies across the globe. Sri developed a keen entrepreneurial interest growing up in a household in Hyderabad India, where his father and uncles imparted a passion for entrepreneurship. He followed his enterprising spirit to the US for undergraduate studies in economics and business management at Knox College, a liberal arts college in Illinois. During this period, he noticed first-hand how artists lacked the sales and business acumen necessary for their careers. By combining some of the computer science, economics, and marketing skills he studied, Sri started an e-commerce store, where students of the college could support their artist friends through purchasing prints of their artwork on tapestries. Seeing the demand for this marketplace, Sri invested most of his savings into the business. This was the start of TapArt and Sri’s entrepreneurial journey. Since finishing his undergraduate degree in 2018, Sri has earned a master’s in Business Analytics from CUNY Baruch College- Zicklin School of Business, while working towards the continued development of TapArt, which has evolved into a marketplace with over 180 artists from 30+ countries across the globe. We continue to build and leverage technology products that support artists every step of the process, from bringing artwork to the marketplace, to receiving a competitive percentage of all revenue earned from sales. Through TapArt, Sri aims to build an equitable future for all artists regardless of their geographical location or economic status.