Luxembourg, 6. February 2024

Vinesia, the wine investment company, today announces its launch on the international FinTech investment market. This dynamic start-up, headquartered in Luxembourg, introduces an innovative investment concept that not only captures the interest of wine enthusiasts but makes investing in fine wine more secure and convenient than ever before.

Wine as an investment is not a new concept: it has intrigued speculators for centuries and has existed as an asset class for around 15 years with the introduction of the Liv-ex 1000, an index that tracks the prices of the world's 1,000 most prestigious wines. Fine wine as a tangible alternative asset class with robust yields and a low market correlation to traditional assets are considered an attractive investment, which also have a high increase in value and are robust in the face of turbulent economic conditions.

However, many investors remain cautious about entering the wine market due to its relatively young status as an asset class. Challenges such as a lack of market structure, limited liquidity, security concerns, and information imbalances make investing and trading in wine unnecessarily complex. Additionally, existing wine investment opportunities require investors to place their trust in third-party entities. These investors must rely on the authenticity of the wine, its secure storage, and protection from issues such as past instances of wine fund losses. Moreover, they must have faith in the optimal storage conditions to maximize future market value.

From a system of Trust to a system of Truth

Vinesia addresses these challenges with an innovative digital ecosystem. By leveraging blockchain technology, the company ensures absolute authenticity for every bottle. It provides real-time proof of asset ownership from its Luxembourg bonded warehouse, complete with a detailed history of storage conditions, including temperature and humidity, over time. All this information is stored on the blockchain, ensuring it is permanent, unalterable, and fully transparent.

Transparency and security first and foremost

As a bridge between renowned wineries and investors, the company sources the best wine directly from the winemakers and secures the investments straight on the wine bottle using NFC (Near Field Communication) and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) tags. This transforms a bottle or a case of wine into a tradable digital twin, an NFT (non-fungible token), with real-time storage data and proof of ownership accessible in real-time on the blockchain. The precious bottles are stored in a professional, secure warehouse that meets all the necessary conditions for storing the wine - an unprecedented luxury for private investors. With the convenience of an app, investors can effortlessly monitor storage conditions in real-time. Vinesia is committed to transparency which means that all wines shown on the marketplace are available to be invested in right away. When investors wish to sell their assets, liquidity is provided by way of the digital assets that can conveniently and easily be traded on Vinesia’s web3 marketplace. They simply select the highest bid on their wines, the digital certificate of ownership (the NFT) is then transferred to its new owner.

Young company history, many years of industry expertise

The management team is comprised of top-tier talent, with former CEO of Boomerang Communications (sold to Accenture Interactive in 2015), WineTech and blockchain expert Emmanuel Bueb (CEO), young entrepreneur and co-founder Bastian Mopin and Fabrice Mopin, Chief Wine Officer (CWO) who has established an outstanding reputation in the industry during his 30 years of experience as a sommelier and consultant. His close and personal industry network provides access to a unique portfolio of high-quality and sought-after wines which can be viewed on the official website. "We believe that the distance between a wine investor and their investment is too far apart these days. Our main driving force is the conviction that this distance should be as small as possible. Vinesia's mission as market leader is to create a comprehensive market structure for investors considering fine wines to diversify their investment portfolio. This market structure is based on transparency, security and access to reliable data for decision-making," says Emmanuel Bueb.

Adam Stepnik (CTO), Fabrice Mopin (Chief Wine Officer), Emmanuel Bueb (CEO) and Bastian Mopin (Co-Founder) (from left to right)

Adam Stepnik, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Vinesia, is responsible for the design of the blockchain technology. As a proven expert with 10 years of experience, he has worked as a lead engineer and in AI research, among other things. Investors' sense of security is Vinesia's biggest mission: "We leverage blockchain technology to create a seamless environment of Truth for our investors, and we use a web2.5 approach to eliminate the typical friction points between crypto and traditional finance. Our users do not have to worry about a web3 wallet or crypto payment mechanisms – all these hurdles have been eliminated on our marketplace," says Stepnik.

AI-supported portfolio modeling

Vinesia is the only wine investment firm to offer automated portfolio modeling. While people are inherently biased and limited in their overall market knowledge, Vinesia's investment suggestions are initially based on its own AI-powered recommendation engine. This serves as the basis for creating individual investment portfolios that account for the investor's time horizon, wine preferences, and risk profile. This is a decisive help, especially for those who lack the market knowledge to make decisions to achieve their investment goals. Importantly, the AI engine bakes into its model the “Rising Stars” in the winemaking world that will provide incremental upside in an investor’s portfolio tomorrow.

Tokenization: more than a trend

Vinesia is pioneering the tokenization of real-world assets, expanding the concept beyond just a trend: What Banksy initiated in the art world is now made viable and secure in the world of wine, all thanks to Vinesia. Further information on Vinesia can be found on the official website