When ArtByte launched in May 2014, this was before the days of ICOs, so there was no way to raise funds like there is today. So all the devs chipped in and created the coin.
ArtByte is a niche coin, serving the art market. Because it is a niche coin, and is not trying to be the next Bitcoin replacement, the crypto community was slow to see the value.
ArtByte was finally recognized in by crypto investors in June of 2017. The marketcap went from $50,000 to $10,000,000 during the summer.
The coin has very solid tech, taking features from Litecoin, Dash, and Peercoin. And now has activated SegWit, to have access to smart contracts, atomic swaps, etc.
The ArtByte Foundation was funded in the beginning with a 25% premine, designed to be spent over 10 years to reward artists and develop services for the users. Now that the coin has working capital, development has increased substantially. Here is the Roadmap:
https://www.artbyte.me/roadmap/