Source: Coindesk.com
The “utility NFT” pioneer is working with The Sandbox following a hefty Series A.
Paris-based Arianee, a platform for linking non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to luxury brands, has raised a 20 million euro ($21 million) Series A funding round led by Tiger Global.
Having pioneered what could be called “utility NFTs” tied to the provenance and ownership of luxury goods, Arianee’s vision now extends to creating digital desirables and reinventing customer relationship management (CRM) for the metaverse.
“We have built an end-to-end solution designed for brands, allowing them to create NFTs, distribute them and leverage tokens and wallets to build a new CRM, new loyalty programs, personalization options and metaverse deployment,” said Arianee CEO Pierre Nicolas Hurstel in an interview.
For example, an NFT distributed to the community of some fashion brand might map to a corresponding digital item of clothing in The Sandbox metaverse, with which Arianne is working, Hurstel explained.
Arianee closed a $9.5 million seed round in March 2021 that included the government-affiliated French Public Investment Bank (Bpifrance), which also joined the Series A round. The firm’s Ethereum-based offering is used by the likes of Printemps, Breitling, Groupe Casino, Vacheron Constantin, Paris Fashion Week, Panerai and IWC.
Going back to the startup’s early days, working with lead developer of the ERC-721 NFT token standard, William Entriken, right up to the current metaverse deployments, Arianee’s goal has remained the same, said Hurstel.
“NFTs will become the new anchor in the relationship between brands and their communities,” he said. “Not only will they be more powerful than any other kind of digital tool, they will allow people to regain control of their digital presence and get their data back”.
