Italian-Swiss Startup Elephants Cashes in 500,000 Swiss Francs Round

Manno-based Italian-Swiss startup Elephants is a platform aimed at democratizing the luxury watch market as an asset class. The company announced the closing of a 500,000 Swiss francs pre-seed round underwritten by a group of private investors that will fund the launch of a luxury watch tokenization platform.

The fintech startup‘s goal is to redefine the luxury watch market, using digital technology to open up an asset class long reserved for the elite. “With purchase prices in some cases higher than the cost of a family home, high-end watches have always been a luxury reserved for a privileged few. We are democratizing opportunities in an asset class historically reserved for the very wealthy,” said Paolo Catalano co-founder and Ceo of Elephants. “Elephants allows anyone to enter a market that has outperformed the S&P500 by more than 100 percent over the past seven years.”

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What Elephants does

The startup was founded in Switzerland in 2022 by Paolo Catalano and Gianvito Grasso, and is harnessing the power, protection, and traceability of blockchain technology to divide the cost of high-end watches among different owners. The watches selected on the platform are unique, vintage, and discontinued, ensuring their status as rare and iconic items. The limited availability of these watches generates strong demand in the market.

The Elephants platform allows users to buy and own fractions of iconic luxury watches in co-ownership, using a data-driven approach to select the luxury watch. Users can purchase fractions of the asset. Once the campaign target is reached, Elephants takes care of the purchase and storage of the authenticated asset at certified institutions. In addition, Elephants monitors the market and helps owners find the best time to sell the watch; funds are then divided proportionally among owners

Gianvito Grasso, co-founder, and CTO of Elephanths added, “The exceptionally high costs of most luxury wristwatches create a de facto monopoly: these watches are built for the rich, collected by the rich, and bought and sold by the rich. Watch enthusiasts and those seeking investment alternatives are cut off from this opportunity. We have found a way to open the doors of this world to a wider audience.”

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(Featured image by henry911 via Pixabay)

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First published in StartupItalia, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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