Arianee builds blockchain-based solutions for global luxury brands to authenticate their products, and to engage their communities in gated online communities. The global brand needed a global way to pay their team.
Hear from Luc Jodet, Executive Director and Co-founder at Arianee, about how Request Finance is helping them reshape the world of luxury and fashion with NFTs.
Before using Request Finance, we were managing our company’s financial operations in crypto using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of counterparties’ billing information, and wallet addresses. Today, we can easily send and receive crypto payments using Request Finance’s invoicing tool.
Founded in 2018, Arianee offers solutions to help brands in the luxury and fashion industry to mint, distribute and manage their NFTs. The Parisian co-founders came together from diverse industry backgrounds like AdTech, luxury, and online fashion marketplaces, over a common conviction in the potential for blockchain to strengthen the relationship between brands and their fan communities. Early NFT projects like RarePepes and CryptoKitties demonstrated just how powerful NFTs could be, inspiring Arianee to help traditional brands navigate the world of NFTs.
Since then, the company has amassed an impressive portfolio of clients. Notable names in the space such as watchmakers Breitling, Audemars Piguet, and Panerai, as well as fashion houses and retailers like Ba&Sh, Mugler, Printemps and many others have already worked with Arianee to create digital ownership records of physical luxury goods.
But while building NFT solutions for communities and brands in traditional luxury segments like fashion and accessories, they saw the opportunity to serve the needs of crypto-native communities. In early 2021, the Arianee team watched the development of new digital brands such as RTFKT, Bored Ape Yacht Club or World of Women. They were quick to notice the parallels with traditional luxury brands and these web3-native communities.
A core tenet of luxury is exclusivity - a key theme throughout the company’s product lines. One of Arianee’s flagship products is SPKZ (pronounced “SpeakEasy”). SPKZ is a platform that hosts private, members-only social clubs where users’ web3 wallets serve as their identities, allowing them to access different communities based on the NFTs they hold.
Unlike the unfiltered, rambunctious world of Discord channels, and Telegram groups that abound in the crypto space today, SPKZ believes that members-only access can help to foster stronger, more curated online communities with NFTs. Arianee has had integrations with various NFT membership technologies like Unlock Protocol and POAP, with more in development.
Today, Arianee has a team of over 40 people in their office at La Caserne, Paris - Europe's largest sustainable fashion accelerator hub. The company has raised over €10M from notable angel investors and venture capital funds in Europe like ISAI, BPU France, Cygni, NOIA and more. Arianee will soon celebrate their first million NFTs minted, and is eager to continue fostering more collaborations between traditional luxury brands, and web3-native projects in the metaverse.
While crypto payments have tremendous benefits, they introduce a world of administrative and compliance challenges for our finance department. As my accountant will attest, blockchain explorers like etherscan, simply will not suffice for proper accounting.
Request Finance adds a layer of documentation to our enterprise crypto transactions, making accounting that much less painful. It is a simple tool that allows us to keep proper records of each crypto transaction that comes in, or goes out from our company wallets.
Before using Request Finance, we were managing our company’s financial operations in crypto using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of counterparties’ billing information, and wallet addresses. Today, we can easily send and receive crypto payments using Request Finance’s invoicing tool.
Me and my CFO, use Request Finance to pay contractors in the crypto industry who either prefer, or have to be paid in stablecoins. Receiving and paying crypto invoices from contractors around the world is the one feature we use the most.
What I like the best about the platform is the sheer ease of use. I often recommend it to crypto contractors such as artists or community managers who do not have a proper billing solution. Features like recurring invoices, pre-filled invoice templates, and real-time payment confirmation also make it incredibly easy to manage a global team of freelancers.
I would say three of the most important gains that we have seen from using Request Finance are: (i) time saved during accounting season, (ii) having proper documentation, and (iii) the ease of managing payments to contractors and freelancers.
Making Request Finance a part of our financial operations has probably saved us a few hours each month, and a full day whenever accounting and financial reporting season comes around.
We looked at other solutions prior like Waltio and Multis, but both solutions were too cumbersome to get started with. When deciding to use a new enterprise tool, complexity and a steep learning curve are prohibitive.
Tools like Request Finance make our lives easier, not harder. The ease of use, and how quick it was to get started really sold me during the demo. We look forward to seeing Request Finance integrate more crypto accounting solutions soon.
A few minutes, it is a very simple tool to use.
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