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Italian innovative startup developed integrated digital solution to protect quality of wine bottles, now seeks investment

Country of Origin: Italy
Reference Number: TOIT20161018001
Publication Date: 18 October 2016

Summary

An Italian innovative startup has created a solution for the wine and spirits market. The solution allows protection and assessment of bottles quality, authenticity, storage and transport by tracking the bottle journey up to the glass and sharing it with the whole chain. The solution is an integrated IoT device to be fastened to bottles neck; it uses advanced technology and interaction between wine bottles, a web platform, a mobile app, production and wine cellars data. An investment is sought.

Description

An Italian startup has created innovative solutions for the wine and spirits market. The company team comprises experienced engineers, information technology professionals as well as students. They have also won an acceleration program for innovative startups by a prestigious institution in Italy.

The aim of these solutions is to protect the quality and the authenticity of wine bottles through time. The solution uses Near Field Communication - Radio Frequency IDentification (NFC RFID) technology and interaction between wine bottles, a web platform, a mobile app and data communicated by producers and wine cellars.



Problem: 

During its whole process, wine never stops modifying. Moreover, prestigious wines can quite often be attacked by counterfeiting and refilling actions. As a result, when top-class, luxury wine bottles leave the wine cellar, it is substantially impossible to obtain reliable and tangible information on how those bottles have been stored, handled, conserved and transported throughout the whole supply chain. When purchasing a bottle of wine, its authenticity and overall integrity are extremely hard -if not impossible- to be assessed and guaranteed both for and by wine-lovers and winemakers. This involve evident and significant disadvantages. 



Solution: 

The Italian startup has tried to respond to the requirement of several actors in the Italian winery market of protecting, sharing and communicating the journey of wines, tracking it from the vineyard up to the glass. One of the strengths of the solution developed is the integrated systems based on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and a customisable software design. 



The solution offered perform 3 main tasks: 

- monitoring of wine conservation parameters (temperature, light and bottle tilt angle) 

- protection from counterfeiting and refilling actions

- "smart communication" using marketing and storytelling strategy.



The solution comprises 3 fundamental, integrated components:  

- The device: a device to fasten to single bottles or boxes/pallets/containers 

- The web platform: a digital platform to save, elaborate, manage and show collected data and contents

- The mobile app: an application which interacts with devices, data and dedicated web platform.



The solution currently has 3 strategic applications:

- one for single, precious wine bottles -  a device placed on every bottle for parameter monitoring, protection and smart communication

- an integrated solution for transport and logistics - a device on “sentinel” bottles inside carton boxes/ pallets/ containers for wine shipment and wine cargos protection

- a solution for smart shelves and wine cellars - remotely controlled and monitored cellars, tests and studies, multi-position smart shelves.



The company is looking for an international investment in France, United Kingdom and -outside Europe- in China, Japan, South Korea or USA, in the form of:

- financial agreement or license agreement (direct investment sought)

- joint venture agreement (partner sought to further develop hardware, marketing and international presence)

- technical cooperation agreement (ideally limited to product technical development, but open to possibilities)

Advantages and Innovations

- Authenticity and integrity of wine quality assessed and demonstrable (e.g. against refilling and counterfeiting)



-  One-touch-point solution with high scalability: the scalable platform for wine can be integrated in various other projects for agri-business and applied to most perishable products (evo oil, coffee, cocoa, caviar, other spirits etc.)



- Internet of Things (IoT) applications with embedded sensors and Near Field Communication - Radio Frequency IDentification(NFC RFID) technology; this will be connected to smartphones to transfer data stored in the device



- High-quality hardware device, made in Italy - produced by an industrial partner with an experienced production technology



- Software platform in the Cloud, allowing links between devices and logistics units, bottles and marketing contents - made available through the smartphone app



- The solution can be used for customer engagement and elaboration of big data and analytics



- Customisable software design for different applications



- There are no other direct competitors in the market, since main players provide only part of the chain services

Stage Of Development

Already on the market

Requested partner

- Type of partner sought: private or public investors, preferably with strong network in Italy, USA, France. Located in China, France, Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom or USA.



- Specific area of activity of the partner: involved in IoT Internet applications and/or Agrofood, especially, but not limited to, wine production-related, distribution chains



- Task to be performed: investment; joint research and technical development of new solutions (e.g. on hardware development) through

    * financial agreement or license agreement (investment sought)

    * joint venture agreement (partner sought to further develop hardware, marketing and international presence)

    * technical cooperation agreement (as of now, limited to technical product development, but open to possibilities) 



The aim of the investment sought is to intervene on the the hardware to make it smaller and more efficient; to fuel international development of the company; to complete the company team; to invest in marketing and sales developing target markets to USA and France in two years from 2016.

Dissemination Countries

China, France, Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom, USA