collectID Metaverse Gateway for Luxury and Sportswear Wins USD 3.5 million Seed Funding Boost

25.02.2022 14:35, Guillaume Tinsel

collectID, enables users to take their physical clothes and accessories into the metaverse, has won a CHF 3.2M (USD 3.5M) seed funding round led by SeventySix Capital and Hellen’s Rock. CollectID was part of the Venture Leaders Mobile 2021.

collectID, headquartered in Switzerland, combines NFT technology, backed by an immutably secure blockchain, through a tamper-proof NFC tag to provide a secure and unique identity for each product that can be applied to the majority of physical objects including clothes, accessories, shoes, watches. With this technology, a new type of digital hybrid experience is possible, where the scalability and financial incentives of selling counterfeit products no longer exist.

Whether in the physical world or as a gateway to the metaverse, brands can use collectID as a new way of engaging and communicating with their customers in a more relevant way, providing new experiences around the product and services that fit their interests. Fans and followers of the brand can receive exclusive content, whether it is about their favorite sports team or fashion brand ambassadors. This can continue throughout the product’s life cycle and can also be integrated into a brand’s own app.

By simply tapping the owner’s smartphone against the product collectID’s app brings up key information on the product; when it was produced and bought, who it belongs to, etc. useful for the item’s guarantee, for if it is sold in the secondary market or as a reference for insurance purposes. As well as luxury brands, collectID is also collaborating with top international sports teams including the Nashville Predators (NHL), Atlético Mineiro (reigning Brazilian soccer champions), Bayer Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart (German Bundesliga). The seed round was led by SeventySix Capital (Pennsylvania/USA) and Hellen’s Rock (Vienna/Austria), with additional funding coming from the SBI-Sygnum-Azimut DAO Fund (Switzerland & Singapore), and several other Swiss-based investors. collectID will leverage the new funds to scale-up its SaaS and App-based solution and data platform worldwide.

“collectID’s technology has the ability to transform the global sports and luxury goods industry’s secondary markets,” said CEO and co-founder, David Geisser. “In 2020 in the US alone, USD 1.3 billion of counterfeited goods were seized by authorities. This is 1 just the tip of the iceberg. Consumers are increasingly facing the risk of buying fake products causing them to lose confidence in brands, making it nearly impossible for them to sell their items on secondary markets. We solve this problem for both brands and customers by combining encrypted, smartphone-ready NFC tags with secure NFTs on the blockchain. collectID’s patented technology furthermore offers a unique gateway for physical products to the Metaverse/Web3.0.”

“The funding we’ve received will accelerate collectID’s growth with an initial focus on Europe and North America in the segments of sports tech and luxury goods,” commented Reinhard Stary, collectID’s Chairman of the board of directors.

collectID was part of the Venture Leaders Mobile 2021
 

Source: collectID Press Release 25.02.2022