Counterfeits of luxury goods are a major problem for fashion houses. Counterfeiters are getting better at replicating brands’ marks and passing off dupes, known as “superfakes,” as genuine items. A startup called Veritas wants to tackle the problem with its own chip that verifies goods.

Veritas was founded by Luci Holland, a former Tesla technical product manager who also has a background in design and art. Its chip is built to be easily inserted into products without damaging them. Brands can use it to verify whether a product is the real deal, and customers can show a certificate of ownership through the company’s app.

Holland said other approaches are easier to defeat, because a digital record can be reproduced through a copied QR code or static NFC link.

“Our approach combines secure, authenticated chip responses with integration into the product itself. Our chip generates a secure response with each tap and includes a tamper-detection wire. We make the connection between the object and its digital identity part of the proof,” Holland said.

The Veritas founder told TechCrunch over email that the company has just introduced the second version of its chip, which works on metal surfaces and can be scanned through glass.

“The next-generation chip is ready for production and supports a broader range of applications, including jewelry, trophies, hard-surface products, and glass objects such as fragrance bottles,” Holland said. “Alongside our garment integrations, this gives brands more ways to incorporate authentication directly into their products.”

This week, the startup announced a partnership with ATHLOS, a women’s track-and-field competition founded by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who is also an investor in Veritas.

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