Bellevue-based product authentication company Alitheon has raised a $10 million Series A round.
With the funding, announced Tuesday, Alitheon CEO Roei Ganzarski said the company plans to add about six to eight employees this year to its current 14-person team. He added that most of the employees are based in the Puget Sound region.
"The majority (of the new hires) will be engineers and mathematicians, and a few sales people as well," Ganzarski said. "Our tech is done, and it works. Now it's about scaling it up and scaling it out."
Ganzarski said Alitheon is moving offices a month from now, going from its current location in downtown Bellevue to the city's outskirts. He said the current office is about 2,000 square feet, and the new office is over 3,000 square feet.
Alitheon, founded in 2016, identifies and authenticates different objects to ensure something isn't counterfeit. Using the company's technology, clients can take a picture of an item and ensure it is the correct item, much in the same way a fingerprint can identify a person.
Ganzarski said two seemingly identical items manufactured by a machine nevertheless have minute differences that can distinguish them, and Alitheon's technology identifies those differences. One potential use, he added, would be an auto manufacturer using Alitheon's tech to ensure brake pads arriving from a third party are not only legitimate but the right brake pad for a specific car.
Although the company is currently focused on business clients, Ganzarski said the tech could be marketed directly to consumers down the road. Alitheon says it is working in the automotive, aerospace, medical and luxury goods industries, among others.
BMW i Ventures, the venture arm of BMW, and Imagine Ventures co-led the Series A round. BMW i Ventures also participated in Alitheon's $14.9 million seed round in early 2020.
Alitheon named Ganzarski CEO in February, replacing interim CEO Brian Crowley. Before his current role, Ganzarski spent more than three years as CEO of Everett-based MagniX, an electric propulsion company focused on commercial aerospace and defense. He also spent more than two years as the executive chairman of the Arlington, Snohomish County-based electric aircraft company Eviation Aircraft.
"This was one of those opportunities that I couldn't give up. I called my wife and said, 'This is the next move,'" Ganzarski said. "I've been accused of being an emotional-slash-passionate guy, and when I fall in love with something, it's pretty clear."
