Having collaborated with Adidas, 9dcc, and other notable partners, IYK has introduced a user-friendly platform for crafting products equipped with NFC technology.
IYK is your ally in achieving brand authentication. In an announcement made on Thursday, the company revealed that it has successfully raised $16.8 million over the past year. This funding will aid customers in verifying the legitimacy of their clothing and merchandise.
Cofounders, Ryan Ouyang and Christopher Lee, presented their concept to various stakeholders and successfully secured a spot in this year’s a16z Crypto Startup School, akin to a Y Combinator for budding cryptocurrency enterprises. Their latest injection of funds for IYK, an acronym for “if you know,” was secured as the program concluded.
As both traditional and cryptocurrency-based brands increasingly adopt tech-integrated clothing, IYK, one of the pioneering startups in this trend, has just unveiled seed funding to expand its NFT-powered infrastructure. Simultaneously, it has introduced a platform designed to streamline the integration of digital elements into fashion and various other products for brands seeking to do so.
The investment round was spearheaded by a16z crypto, the cryptocurrency division of Andreessen Horowitz. Notable contributors encompass Collab Currency, Lattice Capital, 1kx, Synergis Capital, Palm Tree Crew, and Coop Records.
The funding round also featured prominent figures from the Web3 community, such as Erick Calderon, the founder and CEO of Art Blocks, the enigmatic founder of the 9dcc fashion brand known as gmoney, and Justin Aversano, a photographer, and co-founder of Quantum Art.
IYK’s fundraising achievement stands out as notably substantial for an early-stage startup, particularly in a challenging funding environment where venture capitalists have become more cautious. Meanwhile, NFT-driven initiatives like IYK have increasingly faced difficulties and closures.
IYK offers near field communication (NFC) chips that can be seamlessly integrated into various items, including clothing and other products. Additionally, they provide the necessary framework to link these chips to blockchain tokens or NFTs. This technology enables individuals to use their smartphones to scan items like t-shirts, hats, or toys, instantly retrieving a tokenized certificate of authenticity. Furthermore, these certificates can double as access passes to digital content and online communities.
Incorporating chips into T-shirts is not a novel concept, and several startups are actively exploring the idea of making our clothing more technologically advanced.
This startup has previously collaborated with well-known traditional companies such as Adidas, Atlantic Records, Billionaire Boys Club, and Johnnie Walker, in addition to partnering with cryptocurrency-focused brands like Coinbase, MNTGE, Pudgy Penguins, and 9dcc.
They provide brands with a range of choices, allowing companies to personalize how customers assert ownership of a product. This can include specifying the number of times and the duration during which they need to tap their smartphones on a chip.
For instance, Adidas recently introduced 512 tokenized t-shirts at the NFT NYC convention this year. IYK’s NFT technology was employed to verify the authenticity of each shirt and to associate one of eight unique digital “Alter Egos” with each shirt. Meanwhile, MNTGE utilizes IYK’s technology to pair its customized vintage jeans and jackets with digital counterparts that could potentially serve a purpose in online virtual environments.
Additionally, 9dcc, the apparel brand associated with Gmoney, utilizes IYK’s chips for more than just verifying limited-run drops. They also power a loyalty program, including a digital signature feature. This feature enables owners of the recent 9dcc x Jeff Staple baseball cap to receive a digital “signature” through a smartphone tap, and this signature is permanently linked to the Ethereum NFT.
These chips have the versatility to be integrated into various items such as clothing, products, wallet-sized cards, or event placards. When tapped by a smartphone, they have the potential to provide access to physical or virtual events, grant access to exclusive digital content, authenticate the item’s legitimacy, and hold promising possibilities for additional functions in the future.
(Source: Ben Weiss | Fortune | Andrew Hayward | Decrypt)
