GENEVE (Switzerland) – 15 November 2021

The Aura Blockchain Consortium, founded by LVMH, Prada Group, and Cartier, part of Richemont, and OTB Group, are pleased to announce that they have entered a Global Strategic Partnership with Bain & Company. The addition of Bain & Company as the exclusive knowledge partner will guarantee a world-class onboarding as well as strategy development for luxury brands working with the Aura Blockchain Consortium.

Over the last twenty years, Bain & Company has earned the reputation as the absolute market leader in management consulting in luxury. The firm has worked on hundreds of projects globally for luxury brands both upstream and downstream especially with regards to the industry’s push towards sustainability. Bain offers expertise underpinned by proprietary tools and the Future of Retail Framework across every facet of the value chain. Bain also publishes closely watched reports on the evolution of the luxury market, including the annual Bain-Altagamma luxury market monitor that is one of the most quoted and recognised reports on the industry.

The Aura Blockchain Consortium is a non-profit organization created with the vision that collaboration can coexist within a competitive environment, driven by common objectives for the greater good. Aura through its innovative blockchain technology has built a comprehensive suite of solutions that covers the entire luxury lifecycle, upstream and downstream. The customer journey and experience is at the heart of the solutions which include provenance sourcing, tools to communicate authentication, sustainability, digital tokens and NFTs, providing a personalized service that creates a new layer of engagement for luxury brands direct to their consumers.

The Consortium develops standards and provides tools to enhance transparency and trust through sustainable blockchain solutions and related technologies.

Founded by luxury brands, Aura strives to make these technologies easily accessible to all luxury brands irrespective of size and location. Through its activities focused on leveraging blockchain technology throughout the manufacturing and supply chain process, Aura promotes innovation and authenticity within the luxury sector.

Daniela Ott, Secretary General of Aura Blockchain Consortium, said: “Bain & Company has long been recognised as the leading management consultancy that is helping companies transform and define the future of luxury and fashion brands. Today Aura is the only blockchain solution that covers the entire lifecycle of luxury production and consumption. We share a common goal and are delighted to welcome them as our newest global strategic partner. Our members will now have access to worldclass management consultancy to support them as they embrace the opportunities to transform their business using our blockchain solutions”.

Federica Levato, a Bain & Company Partner and Head of EMEA Luxury Practice commented, “We are delighted to join the Aura Blockchain Consortium as the exclusive knowledge partner. The advent of blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFT) has led to a whole new paradigm of how brands engage with their customers. As a company at the forefront of innovation and change for the luxury industry, we look forward to work hand in hand with members of the Aura Blockchain Consortium to navigate the myriad of opportunities presented by this technology and help them craft and execute their strategy for this exciting new frontier of luxury”.