Veritas secures $1.75M pre-seed to combat luxury counterfeits

Veritas, a startup developing anti-counterfeit chip technology, has raised $1.75 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, with participation from DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang, skincare brand Reys’ co-founder Gloria Zhu, and former TechCrunch editor Josh Constine. The startup is developing a hardware and software solution to verify product authenticity, aiming to address the more than $30 billion in annual losses that luxury brands face from counterfeits.

The core of the technology is a chip designed to be “hack-proof” against Flipper Zero, a portable multi-tool device used for hacking wireless systems. The chip incorporates NFC, or Near Field Communication, which is a short-range wireless technology. This allows users to verify an item’s authenticity by tapping a smartphone on it. Veritas founder Luci Holland, a former Tesla product manager, drew on her background as both a designer and a technologist to build the solution. Holland worked with different designers to ensure the chip, which is the size of a small gem, can be inserted into products with minimal disruption to the manufacturing process.

The rise of “superfakes”—highly convincing counterfeit goods—has made it increasingly difficult for luxury brands to protect their designs from counterfeiting. This issue is particularly acute in the second-hand market, which is valued at $210 billion. Holland noted that many legacy brands, or maisons (established luxury fashion houses), have existed for over 100 or 150 years and require advanced protection. She pointed out that existing off-the-shelf NFC solutions are highly vulnerable. “It is shocking to see that some of the shelf solutions, like NFC chips that brands are using, are actually so vulnerable and could easily be bypassed. This is the one thing most people don’t know, and we want to educate the ecosystem to adopt safer solutions,” said Holland.

The startup plans to use the $1.75 million in pre-seed funding to expand its current two-person team. Alexis Ohanian, a partner at Seven Seven Six, described the ongoing battle against counterfeiters as an “arms race” against those producing fake goods. However, Ohanian noted that tech companies are accustomed to fighting and winning these types of races, adding that luxury brands require significant assistance to protect their products.

Why it matters

Veritas is attempting to address the more than $30 billion annual loss luxury brands face from counterfeits by introducing a custom, NFC-based hardware and software solution designed to be “hack-proof.”