Ease of storage, better market liquidity and reinforced traceability are the advantages that InterCellar is targeting with its NFT marketplace. Created in June 2023, the Bordeaux start-up allows French and foreign wine producers to sell their bottles through “digital doubles”, without them having to physically move. Its clients are located both in France and internationally.
70% of the clientele is located in Europe, the rest mainly in Asia or even the UNITED STATES. “By the end of 2024, we plan to have around a hundred references. We want to promote winegrowers and we favor quality over quantity,” underlines Maxime Garraud, co-founder of InterCellar with Louis de Bonnecaze.
To achieve its objectives and develop, the young company is announcing a fundraising of one million euros from around thirty business angels from tech, the field of cryptocurrencies and the wine world. “These funds will serve our development. We have chosen the players who have entered the capital, they understand what we do.”
Wine and NFTs
With this fundraising, InterCellar's team of six people plans to expand around two axes: marketing first and technology second. “We will recruit according to our needs and our growth. We walk before we run.” By leveraging NFT technology to create digital certificates of ownership, the start-up intends to improve market liquidity.
“The digital double facilitates the acquisition of a product, it is a new distribution channel. Wine represents the second surplus balance in France.” For buyers, there is no need to have the bottle on hand in its physical form to sell it, exchange it or even offer it. “It’s an instant exchange that makes it possible to limit the transport of fine wines and reduce the carbon footprint.”
The start-up wants to make it easier for newbies to acquire NFTs, but for web3 aficionados it is possible to pay in cryptocurrency (Ethereum) as well as in euros or dollars. It should be noted that NFTs, these digital tokens hosted on a blockchain whose popularity had artificially exploded in 2022, are no longer so popular today.
Optimize storage
InterCellar also offers a storage solution that it says is reinforced by the presence of the NFT. “Not everyone has a cellar or the knowledge to store wine,” underlines Maxime Garraud. Its partner Ziegler thus ensures the conservation of the bottles in optimal conditions and can then deliver the wine to its owner wherever they wish to taste it.
“New technologies also improve traceability. Producers can know their customers while 30% of the world's great wines are fakes. With InterCellar, the bottle leaves the château, enters storage and no longer moves.” The bottles thus take on a collectible dimension unrelated to their primary function: to be drunk.
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