Veritas has expanded the reach of its anti-counterfeit authentication chip beyond clothing. The startup, founded by former Tesla technical product manager Luci Holland, has introduced a second version of its chip that works on metal surfaces and can be scanned through glass. According to Holland, the chip is ready for production and is suited to jewelry, trophies, hard-surface products and glass objects such as fragrance bottles. The company says this gives brands more ways to build authentication directly into their products.
Luxury brands have struggled as counterfeiters produce increasingly convincing copies, sometimes called superfakes, that reproduce brand marks and pass as genuine. Veritas aims to separate real goods from fakes with a chip designed to be inserted into a product without damaging it. Brands can use the chip to confirm authenticity, while customers can display a certificate of ownership through the company's app.
Holland said alternative methods are simpler to defeat because a digital record can be copied through a duplicated QR code or a static NFC link. She described the Veritas approach as pairing secure, authenticated chip responses with physical integration into the product itself. Each tap produces a secure response, and a tamper-detection wire is included. In her view, the link between the object and its digital identity forms part of the proof.
The startup announced a partnership this week with ATHLOS, a women's track-and-field competition founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who is also an investor in Veritas. Under the partnership, all 18 championship crowns will carry Veritas chips so they can be verified. Veritas also embedded a chip in a pair of LeBron James's first Nike shoes, reimagined by artist Adam Port; tapping a phone to the shoe brings up its history and story.
Veritas has raised $1.75 million in pre-seed funding led by Ohanian's venture firm Seven Seven Six. DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang, Gloria Zhu, co-founder of the skincare brand Reys, and former TechCrunch editor Josh Constine also participated. Since its February fundraise, the company has shipped an iOS app for consumers and a brand portal that lets companies manage product records and build owner experiences. Through the app and portal, brands can offer clubs, event check-ins and segmented early access to product drops.
Veritas competed in this year's TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, which ran Tuesday through Thursday. A winner was announced Thursday afternoon.
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