Arianee, a Paris-based specialist in the digital certification of valuable fashion and luxury items, has closed an €8 million seed financing round.

The company aims to become a leading partner in the rapidly evolving luxury and fashion industries, following the development of the Arianee protocol for issuing encrypted digital passports on the blockchain, available in open source via a consortium under French law and open to all developers wishing to create new uses for brands.

It allows brands to offer their customers a customised and personalized experience by developing their own user interface and producing digital passports in real time, directly from their IT infrastructure.

The luxury and retail industries have been undergoing profound changes, and are witnessing the emergence of new considerations, from e-commerce to second-hand platforms, the company says. The digitalization of consumer relations, the circular economy, transparency, traceability, and responsibility have become more salient than ever.

To address these emerging issues, brands must innovate to offer an experience that meets the expectations of a new generation of consumers.

Arianee’s solution allows brands to create a digital passport for each of their products, which guarantees a product’s authenticity and allows them to maintain a perpetual relationship with the product owner and a history of the events and transactions happening during its life cycle.

Luxury brands who are already part of the Arianee Consortium include Audemars Piguet, ba&sh, Breitling, Constantin, Dubuis, Manufacture Royale, Olistic, Richemont, Roger MB&F, Satoshi Studio, Vacheron Panerai and Verlan.

“In just under three years, Arianee has become a world-renowned reference platform for a rapidly-evolving sector,” said Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel, CEO of Arianee. “Today, our solution is the only one that is activated by major luxury brands for their customers. By leveraging a published, open-source code and a hosted, high-performance, reliable and robust SaaS solution, we offer a durable architecture adapted to both the integration needs of large groups and to the customisation needs of the brands’ customer experience.”

www.arianee.org