Virgo is born

Milan - October 21, 2019 - Temera, PwC, Luxochain and Var Group, four world-class leaders, have been contributed to create the first integrated, safe and transparent solution for value chain’s tracking, certifying the authenticity of luxury goods, from raw materials’ purchase to goods’ manufacturing and sale, up to the ownership transfer on the secondary market.

The new Virgo platform was presenteduring the Milan Fashin Global Summit

Virgo will allow manufacturers to self-certify every single lot, using several best-in-class technologies, from RFID UHF and NFC to blockchain certification, the latest promising innovation in the luxury goods’ certification market.

Virgo is an open and modular solution, able to integrate multiple technologies, from IoT to Blockchain, maintaining an agnostic and integration-oriented philosophy. The platform allows brands and customers to track the whole life cycle of the product, which can be integrated with existing ERPs; it aims at reaching maximum flexibility and at being easy to use for every player involved, focusing on the user-experience for brands, suppliers and end consumers.

Virgo reshapes luxury and fashion’s storytelling, also turning the supply chain operators into real protagonists, opening up new dialogue perspectives with consumers, allowing them to know the garments’ origin, as well as collecting information on the raw material used, the product’s ethical sustainability and its environmental and social impact. Production sustainability currently is a distinctive and driving force for the whole Fashion sector; this way Virgo becomes a key tool to enhance brand’s commitment and a benefit for the entire supply chain.

Arcangelo D’Onofrio, CEO of Temera, said: “Current certification systems are complex and expensive, while the supplier monitoring system is inadequate to meet the ever-increasing need for transparency in the supply chain. Thanks to Virgo, we are able to increase consumers’ confidence in the brand, making all vale elements clear, while respecting the principles of transparency, ethical and environmental sustainability, animal welfare and raw materials and processes’ quality. ”

Francesca Moriani, CEO of Var Group, declared: “Transparency and sustainability are key values allowing brands to increase their reputation and trust. Every moment, every place, every manufacturing process becomes a value element. Tracing a product along the supply chain creates a history, a set of transactions that anyone can read as a proof of authenticity and guarantee. With Virgo, we want to ensure a clear and flexible process, where raw materials and production lots will be certified, enhancing sustainability, environmental responsibility, ethics and social principles.

Davide Baldi, CEO of Luxochain, added: “We are very proud of this strategic initiative. Virgo’s goal is to protect brands’ reputation, creating digital fingerprints for each product, providing new value chain-related analytics and insights, improving both loyalty and rewards process between brands and end users. With our system, available for both iOS and Android, any buyer can use their smartphone to verify the authenticity of each product, in-store and online, or in the growing secondary market. At the time of purchase, the user will then receive the corresponding authenticity and ownership certificate, registered in blockchain.”

Stefano Spiniello, Associate Partner of PwC, stated: “This is a unique opportunity to integrate different skills and competencies and to participate in the promotion and implementation of a strategic platform supporting companies in both tracking and validating supply chain’s processes. Virgo’s use will result in sustainability and brand reputation enhancement, to the benefit of the organizations operating in this sector which we have been supporting for some time now, by providing them with the expertise of the professionals of our Consumer Markets practice, within our technology consulting division.”

Virgo, created today to change tomorrow’s world.