Bells are ringing, glasses are clinking, and it's that time of year again. As we look back on 2021, we remember a year the web was dominated by the Decentralized Renaissance with weird acronyms, a sense of cultural motion, and vibrant communities - a world filled with dreams. 2021 has been a big year for us at Arianee too. Before ringing in the holidays, we thought it would be worthwhile to have a moment of humble reflection. So get your reading glasses and Santa hat on, because we got quite a list.
1/ WE RAISED 8 MILLION EURO
In March, we closed our seed round with a total amount raised of €8 million by leading French investors in the tech & blockchain industries. This raise confirmed the vision and relevance of Arianee's model, allowing us to meet growing demand from brands and develop our technology to promote a "reinvented customer relationship": transparent, traceable, secure, and respectful of privacy.
2/ WE DOUBLED THE SIZE OF OUR SQUAD
With whiteboards upon whiteboards of ideas to implement, we decided that we needed more talents. The Arianee team is 28 people now, which means we have almost doubled in size this year. The influx of new talents allowed us to deliver new products at speed, as you will discover later in the article 😉
If you fancy, pay us a visit at our new home at La Caserne - Europe's largest sustainable fashion accelerator. Last Paris Fashion Week we were lucky enough to watch the spectacular show of Victoria Tomas live from the 4 floor. Just saying.
3/ WE BUILT OUT A VARIETY OF FEATURES
2021 has been a busy year for our product & development team. 3 main achievements:
Developing our technical partnerships:
IBM Hyperledger, KORE custodial wallet, OpenSea & Polygon compatibility, ISRA NFC tags.
Proposing new services around the NFT core:
- Web wallet (allowing owners to import/use a newly created blockchain address to manage his/her digital twins)
- Wallet monitoring & analysis
- White label wallets (enable NFT issuers to customize their wallet with their branded “look and feel”).
- AR
- Social media filter
- Lost & found services (with police and customs authorization)
Enhancing brands & customer experience:
by bringing several product adjustments including:
- SaaS improvement (BDH)
- Staking contract for Aria20 holders
- Entry control web app
- Pairing app
- AR recognition for linking digital twin NFTs and physical goods
Big shout out to everyone in the team for always being on top of your game! 💪
4/ WE RELEASED SPKZ.IO BETA (PRONOUNCED “SPEAKEASY”)🍸
Wait there's another release after all this?
Wave hello to our new product - SPKZ - the first web3 Community Platform Protocol. SPKZ is a place where everyone can come and have a conversation with people with skin in the game. Login is done through your wallet, and depending on your token holdings, you'll be allowed to the corresponding lounges.
SPKZ's mission is to create a marketing and communication solution for the decentralized internet, where digital asset holders can connect with other verified holders through their crypto wallet and the tokens they own.
SPKZ furthers our spirit of connecting people in a secure & trusted manner, and complements our offerings by addressing the new wave of purely digital brands and collection creators, whose link with their communities is already exclusively through NFTs.
Come say hi on the SPKZ Bar: https://spkz.io/app/lounges/10/thebar
5/ WE LAUNCHED OUR FIRST PHYGITAL COLLECTION IN COLLABORATION WITH KITTEN PRODUCTION & IBM
Last September, Paris Fashion Week came back with a color blast and so did we (literally) at Arianee. For the first time ever, we launched a fashion collection in collaboration with Kitten Production and IBM. Spoiler: these are not the ordinary items that you’ll find everyday in your wardrobe. Not only are the hoodies cute to the eyes and kind to the skin, they were produced with the planet in mind. With an NFC chip integrated into each hoodie, one can track its supply chain provenance and unlock an array of cool phygital experiences.
If you're hungry for more, dive in our White Paper From Street to Metaverse: The Future of Connected Garments for a wealth of valuable insights.
6/ WE TRAVELLED THE WORLD FOR INDUSTRY EVENTS
After a long pause due to COVID lockdown, we were excited to finally meet people IRL again. From Chicago, NYC, to Lisbon, Monaco, Paris, everywhere we went, we had the privilege to meet with world-class thought leaders, networked with the architects of web3, and sparked potential collaboration opportunities.
7/ WE WERE FEATURED ON FORBES, VOGUE, BOF, AND MANY MORE!
This year we got featured more than 200 times on the news, including Forbes, Vogue, Fashion Network, Journal Du Luxe, CoinDesk, Jing Daily and more. Huge thanks to all the reporters & podcasters for having given such positive exposure to our solutions.
8/ WE KICKED OFF A MONTHLY PROGRAM FOR OUR CONSORTIUM MEMBERS
Today, Arianee Project is proud to count 40 members from different fields. Since the beginning, our vision for the Arianee Project is clear: to build a collaborative environment where every brand & tech partner involved could receive support, visibility, and a range of benefits in the adoption of NFTs. With that in mind, we kicked off a Communication Program for our members with monthly meetups and events, enriched with a Knowledge Center for members to share insights and find necessary resources.
9/ WE ACTIVELY PARTICIPATED IN EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
This year, we had the pleasure to give a course on "Sustainability in Luxury" at ESSEC Business School, and another course on “How Tech & Innovation are changing the fashion & luxury industries?“ at IFM as part of our involvement in the IFM Foundation. Pierre-Nicolas and Christelle were blown away by how forward thinking & creative the students were!
At Arianee, we truly believe that the success of our industry lies in the ability of its talents to be in tune with society. By participating in these educational activities, we wish to bring real-world insights to the class, contributing to the training of our future talents.
10/ WE WERE THE TRUSTED PARTNER TO PARIS FASHION WEEK, BREITLING, AZ FACTORY, AND MORE!
In 2021, we continued to strengthen our position in the global fashion & luxury market. We are proud to be the NFT platform of choice for upstanding brands. Among others:
- Since January 1st, every Breitling watch comes with an Arianee NFT digital passport, allowing owners to prove the authenticity of the products & unlock an innovative and symbiotic brand–customer relationship.
- We partnered with Paris Fashion Week to offer NFT-enhanced experiences to all accredited participants. Paris became the first fashion week in the world to implement NFTs, showing that not only is Paris always at the forefront of innovation but also that NFT are not just for crypto-addicts.
- We launched an exclusive NFT collection unveiled during AZ Factory’s tribute show to Alber Elbaz. It is the first time our web-based wallet service is live for a fashion brand and we couldn’t dream of a better brand to start with.
Let's not forget that we sold for charity two pairs of phygital sneakers made by Satoshi Studio with Rekt and StakeDAO 🥳
And that's it! From all of us at Arianee: stay safe, stay cozy, and we'll see you in the new year. It'll be just grand. We have big news to announce soon with you in Q1.
Cheers to another trip around the sun 🥂
The Arianee Team.
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