Veritas Readies Second-Generation Chip to Authenticate Goods on Metal and Glass
Veritas has released the second version of its chip for checking whether luxury goods are authentic, and the new hardware is ready for production. The company was founded by Luci Holland, a former Tesla technical product manager, and competed in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield in 2026. TechCrunch
The new chip works on metal surfaces and can be scanned through glass. That extends it to jewelry, trophies, other hard-surface products, and glass objects such as fragrance bottles.
Each chip creates a fresh secure code with every tap, like a one-time password. That code links the physical item in hand to an online record. It also includes a tamper-detection wire, a thin circuit designed to break authentication if the chip is removed or altered.
Veritas has also shipped the surrounding software. That includes an iOS app that lets consumers verify items themselves and a brand portal where companies manage their product records.
Early use is focused on high-profile collectibles. Veritas announced a partnership with ATHLOS, the women's track-and-field competition founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, under which all 18 ATHLOS championship crowns will include Veritas chips for verification. The company also embedded a chip into a pair of LeBron James' first Nike shoes reimagined by artist Adam Port. TechCrunch
On the business side, Veritas raised $1.75 million in pre-seed funding led by Seven Seven Six.
The broader context here is a practical integration problem. Authentication tags work fine on cardboard, fabric, and plastics. Metal and glass are harder. Metal interferes with antennas and disrupts the signal. Glass requires the scan to work at a distance through a solid barrier. A tag that reads reliably in both cases makes it simpler for brands that sell across many materials.
Looking at deployment, the questions that matter are operational rather than just about the chip itself. Per-tap codes only help if setting up keys, onboarding brands, and letting shoppers verify items stay simple. A brand portal and a consumer app address that directly. Tamper evidence helps too, but only if removal reliably disables the tag without causing false failures during normal wear, shipping, and handling. In my view, those failure modes will shape adoption more than read range alone.
Worth flagging for enterprise buyers is the split of trust. The chip confirms a tag was present and untampered when tapped. It does not by itself confirm what the tag was attached to at the factory. That link still depends on factory process, chain of custody, and how product records are issued and revoked. Veritas is positioning the portal as the control point for that workflow, which is the right layer to watch.
