Ex-Tesla Product Manager Unveils Microchip to Authenticate Luxury Goods

Veritas has developed custom microchips for embedding in luxury goods to link them with digital certificates that enable verification of authenticity.

Luci Holland (left). Credit: Veritas

Luci Holland founded the company after serving as a technical product manager at Tesla where she worked on the 12 Volt battery team.

She also pursues work in the arts that includes mixed media painting and metal sculpture.

The microchips rely on near field communication technology so a smartphone tap confirms whether an item is genuine.

Veritas designed the chips with a custom coil and bridge structure that makes the device go dormant and hide product codes during tampering attempts.

The company states that the chips resist bypass efforts from tools such as the Flipper Zero.

Luxury brands lose more than 30 billion dollars a year to counterfeit products. The second hand luxury market has reached 210 billion dollars and lacks reliable verification options for buyers.

On its website Veritas describes the microchips as custom built and linked to digital certificates for instant verification. Holland told TechCrunch:

"For me, as someone who has a background in being a designer and then also has experience in tech, I saw this problem and thought about the different ways we could solve it. I think what’s truly innovative is we’ve used and combined elements from both hardware and software to create this solution that helps protect brands in this way to convey the information."

She added:

"When I think of counterfeiting and I think of the most iconic and legacy brands, a lot of these brands have been around for over 100, 150 years. These brands deserve the most advanced protection to protect these designs." 

Veritas raised 1.75 million dollars in pre seed funding led by Seven Seven Six.

Participants included DoorDash co founder Stanley Tang.

The two person company will use the proceeds to expand its team.

The software platform allows brands to oversee chipped items, enter product information and provide customers with exclusive access opportunities.