Authentix grows again, buying brand protection firm SIPI

Authentix has continued an acquisitive spree by taking over Strategic IP Information (SIPI), a Singapore-based company providing online brand and content rights protection services.

Texas-based Authentix – arguably best known for its marker and coding technologies than can be incorporated into products and packaging for track-and-trace purposes – said the deal fulfils a strategic objective of expanding into online brand protection.

SIPI specialises in monitoring e-commerce and social media platforms for counterfeit products and securing takedowns of intellectual property-infringing listings, as well as tracking illicit sellers offline and carrying out enforcement operations to seize counterfeit stock.

The company claims to be the largest company operating in this category in Asia, helping to protect products from more than 200 brand-name companies in the luxury goods, fashion, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, spirits, manufacturing, automotive, and media industries.

The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions for Authentix. Last year, it bolstered its position in unique customer and product codes used in covert marking applications by acquiring Traceless from US library services group Biblioteca, and in 2019 snapped up UK-based Security Print Solutions (SPS), bolstering its position in high security printing.

Authentix chief executive Kevin McKenna said the SIPI deal "expands our portfolio of digital security technologies to include online anti-counterfeiting and content rights solutions," adding: "a key element of our growth plan includes the integration of both online investigation and copyright protection services."

SIPI will remain a standalone operating entity and retain its brands, which include online monitoring platform Veri-Site, S-Lock, which uses machine learning to monitor more than 500 online marketplaces, and O2O – acquired by SIPI last year – which provides offline enforcement.