Veritas expands its anti-counterfeiting chip to jewelry, jewelry, and perfume bottles.

Counterfeiting luxury goods is a big problem for fashion houses. Counterfeiters have gotten better at duplicating brand names, passing off dupes known as "super fakes" as genuine items. A startup called Veritas wants to solve the problem with its chip that authenticates goods. Veritas was founded by Lucy Holland, a former Tesla technical expert […]

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Counterfeiting luxury goods is a big problem for fashion houses. Counterfeiters have gotten better at duplicating brand names, passing off dupes known as "super fakes" as genuine items. A startup called Veritas wants to solve the problem with its chip that authenticates goods.

Veritas was founded by Lucy Holland, a former technical product manager at Tesla who also has a background in design and art. Its chip is made in such a way that it is easily inserted into the products without damaging them. Brands can use it to verify the authenticity of a product, and customers can show proof of ownership through the company's app.

Other approaches are easier to defeat, Holland said, because a digital record can be reproduced via a copied QR code or NFC permalink.

"Our approach combines secure, authenticated chip responses with integration into the product itself. Our chip generates a secure response with every tap and includes a tamper detection wire. We make the connection between the object and its digital identity part of the proof," Holland said.

Veritas' founder told TechCrunch via email that the company has just announced a second version of its chip that works on metal surfaces and can scan through glass.

The next-generation chip is ready for production and a wider range of applications, including jewelry, jewelry, hard surface products and glass objects such as perfume bottles, said Holland. Along with our apparel integrations, this gives brands even more ways to build authentication directly into their products.

This week, the startup announced a partnership with ATHLOS, a women's track and field competition founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who is also a Veritas investor. As part of this partnership, all 18 championship crowns will include Veritas chips so they can be verified.

The company also embedded a chip into a pair of LeBron James' first Nike shoes, redesigned by artist Adam Port. Tapping the phone on the shoe reveals its history and story.

The company has so far raised $1.75 million in seed funding led by Ohanian's venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, with participation from DoorDash founder Stanley Tong. Gloria Zhou, co-founder of skincare brand Reys; and former TechCrunch editor Josh Kenstein.

Since raising capital in February, the company has shipped an iOS app for consumers and a brand portal that allows companies to manage product records and create owner experiences. Through apps and portals, brands can offer experiences like clubs, event check-ins, and segmented early access to products.

Veritas participated in this year's TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, which ran from Tuesday to Thursday. The winner was announced Thursday afternoon.

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Evan covers global developments in consumer technology at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked for publications including The Huffington Post and The Next Web.

You can contact or confirm Ivan by sending an email to [email protected] or via encrypted message to ivan.42 on Signal.

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