Arianee is a blockchain alliance that creates digital passports for luxury goods, including Breitling and Vacheron Constantin. Today it announced it raised €8 million in a seed round from ISAI fund, the French Public Investment Bank (Bpifrance), Cygni Labs, Noia Capital funds and French tech entrepreneurs. We understand that the company previously raised €4 million through token sales.
The digital passport’s purpose is to demonstrate the associated item is authentic, which also enhances resale value. Plus there are numerous potential added value features, including enhancing the connection with the brand. The non-profit consortium founded in 2017 aims to “implement a global standard for the digital certification of luxury goods”.
Arianee says Richemont is part of its alliance, although there have been no announcements by any of Richemont’s brands apart from Vacheron Constantin. Many brands prefer to stay low-key about their initiatives. Another big luxury conglomerate, LVMH developed its own blockchain authenticity solution AURA.
In terms of technology, Arianee uses Ethereum technology but on a Proof of Authority network which is a sidechain of the public network. It has a token Aria20 used as a utility token to pay for transactions. In today’s announcement, Arianee said that all investors are ‘exposed’ to the utility token as well as equity.
The digital passports themselves are also tokens, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) unique to the specific luxury item. Technically, it’s the same token standard currently being used by the likes of NBA TopShot for digital collectibles, but in this case, the purpose is to associate it with a unique physical object.
