Overstock's Medici Venture backs blockchain startup seeking to tokenize wine industry

Medici Ventures, the blockchain accelerator and wholly-owned subsidiary of Overstock.com, has announced that it has made a strategic investment in Israeli blockchain startup VinX.

By leveraging blockchain technology, VinX seeks to enable wineries to streamline funding by selling wine futures and developing direct connections with their consumers. Its key objective is to reduce fraud in the wine industry by using blockchain to track the provenance of wine.

The startup plans to create a token-based digital wine futures platform based on the Bordeaux futures model that allows for the selling and trading of wine futures on a transparent and secure blockchain.

“VinX’s steps in tokenizing wine futures while allowing wine enthusiasts to know without a doubt that the bottles they purchase are filled with authentic wines will position the entire industry as a model of a new global economy that replaces old boys’ networks with frictionless trust through technology,” said Patrick M. Byrne, CEO and founder of Overstock.com.

Jacob Ner-David, VinX co-founder and CEO, said that registering all wine futures as tokens on a blockchain “will go a long way toward reducing fraud.”

“We are so excited to partner with the Overstock/Medici Ventures family to help us realize the VinX vision, which meshes exactly with the core values of Medici Ventures,” he said. “VinX is democratizing the capital structure of the wine industry by bringing consumers in direct contact with producers early in the wine-making cycle.”