Arianee raises €20 million

Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel can be smiling. After a few weeks of negotiations, the head of Arianee has just completed a €20 million funding round. And not from just anyone, since the Paris-based start-up specialising in asset tokenisation has attracted the American fund Tiger Global, which has invested in a number of French unicorns including Qonto, Ankostore and Spendesk.

Will Arianee become a unicorn as a result? While it is far too early to say, what is certain is that with this new money (in equity and tokens), the company created in 2018 - in the middle of the crypto bear market - will have the means to develop further. "They're the ones who came looking for us, so it's a very good signal. With this investment, we'll be able to accelerate", explains Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel. Arianee's other historical shareholders, such as Bpifrance, ISAI and Noia Capital are also putting their money back into the pot.

Going beyond luxury

Since its creation, the start-up whose valuation is being kept secret has been offering a solution for tokenising assets on Ethereum (layer 1) and POA and Polygon on layer 2. It began with luxury goods. "Luxury brands have the image, the relationship with the customer and the global dimension to justify tokenisation," he explains. Arianee, which has around forty employees, works with many brands such as Richemont and Breitling. But it now wants to broaden its scope, not least because the market has opened up significantly.

The recent wave of NFTs has come and gone. "Companies are realising that the physical and digital worlds are interoperable. They realise that wallets are the new interface," explains Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel. So demand is massive. In the coming months, Arianee, which has just announced a partnership with Stade Toulousain, wants to sign contracts in the sports, entertainment, mobility and retail sectors.