Overview
A global marketplace for artists of the African diaspora
Swakara Atwell-Bennett launched Bettershared in 2016 as a global art marketplace for emerging artists from the African diaspora. Since then the platform has scaled to feature more than 200 artists showcasing, renting and selling their work around the world, alongside a B2B art-as-a-service offering for businesses.
The Problem
Big ideas, bootstrapped budgets
Bettershared is bootstrapped, so growth has come in unconventional ways: community engagement and scrappy marketing campaigns promoting both the B2C marketplace and the B2B art-as-a-service offering. Even with a strong return on marketing investment, scaling the brand proved difficult without a budget to match the ambition.
As a black female entrepreneur, Swakara has faced repeated barriers around investment. The business was cash flow positive and on the way to profitability, so her real challenge was deciding where her time was best spent: chasing funding for scale, or working on the fundamentals of the business to support growth.
The Solution
Growth Credit for project-based marketing
Lenkie's Growth Credit fitted the shape of Bettershared's spending. With invoices paid through Lenkie, the business could pitch to more companies, attend trade shows and run a larger advertising spend, while cash stayed in the business to keep improving the product.
Swakara considered a range of small business loan options, but chose Lenkie for the flexible use of funds and the relationships built with the team, and because it meant growing without giving up equity in the business.
Results
Funding longer-term growth
With marketing funded and cash preserved in the business, Bettershared is looking toward the bigger picture: expansion into the US market for its B2B art-as-a-service offering, disrupting the art industry with an experience that interweaves content and commerce.
200+
artists showcased on the marketplace
Takeaway
Bettershared's story is about funding growth without dilution. For a bootstrapped founder who had already proven the model, the question was never whether to grow but how to pay for it without handing over equity. Growth Credit let the marketing scale while ownership stayed exactly where it was.
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