Counterfeits And The Resale Problem
Counterfeit goods cost luxury brands more than $30 billion a year, while buyers in the $210 billion second-hand market lack a reliable way to confirm whether items are genuine. Veritas says it is addressing both issues with a system that combines custom hardware and software to verify products and link them to digital records.
The startup says it has built a chip designed to be resistant to common tampering tools, including devices such as Flipper Zero, and pairs each chip with a digital certificate tied to the product. The goal is to let brands and buyers check authenticity and trace items through a secure system.
How The Technology Works
Veritas worked with designers to create a chip about the size of a small gem that can be inserted into a product without damaging it, even after the item is made. The chip uses near field communication, the same short-range wireless technology used in contactless payments, which allows a customer to tap a smartphone on the item to verify it.
For security, the company says it built a custom coil and bridge structure. If someone tries to tamper with the product, the chip is designed to go dormant and hide the codes linked to the item. On the software side, product information connects to Veritas’s back end, which monitors scanning behavior to limit fraud. The company also creates a blockchain-based digital version of each product that can be used for digital displays or virtual environments.
The first product, an open source tool called Checkpoints, pairs each piece of AI-generated software submitted to a project with the context that produced it, including prompts and transcripts. Veritas says this is meant to let human developers review, search, and understand why an AI system generated specific code, and to help manage growing volumes of AI-written software that are now flooding many projects.
Founder Background And Design Choices
Founder Luci Holland has worked as both an artist and a technologist, with experience in mixed media painting and metal sculpture as well as roles at Tesla and other technology companies and venture funds. She said luxury brands have long relied on physical marks to authenticate goods, but counterfeiters now reproduce those marks and even create convincing fake certificates, producing what the industry often calls “superfakes.”
Holland said she spoke with established fashion houses that told her some locations had stopped authenticating items because fakes had become too hard to detect. She said the company’s approach draws on both hardware and software to protect products and communicate reliable information about them.
Brand Use And Customer Engagement
Veritas did not name its partners, but said brands can use its software to track all chipped products, manage team access, and add product information and stories that can also be shared with customers. The company said some partners use the system to offer exclusive invitations or early access to new products.
Holland said part of the company’s work is educating brands about weaknesses in existing solutions, including standard NFC chips that she said can be bypassed. She said many companies are not aware of how vulnerable some current tools are.
Funding And Backers
Veritas said it raised $1.75 million in pre-seed funding led by Seven Seven Six, with participation from DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang, Reys co-founder Gloria Zhu, and former TechCrunch editor Josh Constine. The company said it plans to use the funding to expand its two-person team.
Alexis Ohanian of Seven Seven Six said he was drawn to the combination of design and technology behind the product and said brands are looking for more robust ways to deal with counterfeit goods.
Featured image credits: Pixnio
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