Fighting product counterfeiting: partnership between Silveira Capital and Acviss brings together strategy and fullstack technology.
Executive summary
Product counterfeiting is no longer a "just enforcement" problem and has directly affected revenue, reputation, consumer safety, and corporate governance. A recent global portrait estimates that the international trade of counterfeit products moved around USD 467 billion in 2021, something like 2.3% of global trade, with a relevant concentration in categories such as clothing and footwear, and expansion to sectors with greater consumer risk, such as auto parts, cosmetics, toys, food, and medicines.
In the Brazilian context, estimates of losses associated with the illegal market (sectoral losses + tax evasion) indicate a level of approximately R$ 468.3 billion in 2024, with a strong impact on categories such as clothing and alcoholic beverages, as well as critical items for production chains and safety (pesticides, tires, automotive parts, medicines, and vaccines). In Brazil, the total losses from the illegal market amount to more than 4% of its GDP.
It is in this scenario that Silveira Capital announces a partnership with Acviss to offer the Brazilian market a full-stack approach against counterfeiting: authentication at the point of contact (physical and digital), traceability/track & trace, online brand monitoring, and a data framework capable of guiding prevention, detection, and response actions.
Partnership between Silveira Capital and Acviss
Silveira Capital has developed solid relationships on the Asian continent since the sale of Hortec to East West Seeds. From this international consolidation, new customers started to look for structured opportunities in Brazil, including Acviss, a global technology company specializing in brand protection, traceability, and anti-counterfeiting solutions.
Faced with the dimension of the counterfeiting problem in the Brazilian market, with direct impacts on industrial margins, brand reputation, tax collection, and consumer safety, as well as evidence of links with organized crime structures, Silveira Capital and Acviss formalized a strategic partnership to offer the national market integrated and customized technological solutions. The goal is to structure complete operations (full stack), combining authentication by unit, real-time tracking, digital brand monitoring with artificial intelligence and data-driven loyalty programs.
Silveira Capital's work involves the development of the Brazilian market for Acviss, identifying strategic customers - industries, distributors, and major brands - and structuring projects that integrate technology, financial modeling, and economic viability. The value proposition for the client goes beyond technological implementation: it includes strategic industrial consulting, design of brand protection architecture, ROI analysis and structuring of models that transform protection into revenue generation and loyalty.
Acviss represents a robust solution for both Brazilian companies facing counterfeiting problems and foreign companies that want to enter Brazil with a protection and traceability system. The partnership combines the strategic challenges of the Brazilian market with one of the greatest competitive advantages of India, recognized as a global IT hub and leader in the export of software and information technology services, creating a unique value proposition.
For investors, the integration between proprietary technology, financial structuring and strategic market development creates a clear vector of value generation: protection of intangible assets, increased margins, reduction of losses, strengthening of the brand and creation of market intelligence based on traceable data. It is an execution-driven alliance with a focus on measurable operational impact and sustainable competitive positioning.
Economic and social impact of product counterfeiting
The global outlook helps to measure the problem: the OECD and the EUIPO point out that the global trade in counterfeits remains at a high level (estimated at USD 467 billion in 2021), and highlight that clothing, footwear, and leather goods concentrate a large portion of seizures, while there is a growing presence of "dangerous counterfeits" in sectors such as beverages, automotive parts, medicines, cosmetics, toys and food, with direct risks to health and safety.
A relevant vector for the current scale is the distribution channel: OECD reports indicate that counterfeiters benefit from smaller shipments and mail ("small parcels" and mail), which increases capillarity and makes sorting difficult. In findings from the same set of studies, about 65% of seizures occurred in small packages/mail (measured by seizure occurrences), suggesting migration to channels with lower friction.
In Brazil, in addition to being a consumer issue, it is a macroeconomic problem. A balance sheet attributed to the National Forum Against Piracy and Illegality estimates total losses of R$ 468,349,825,000 in 2024 (sectoral losses + tax evasion), and explains that the methodology is based on data provided by the sectors themselves to the entity.
This same material shows a relevant concentration in categories of high turnover and high exposure to counterfeiting/smuggling: clothing (R$ 87.36 billion) and alcoholic beverages (R$ 85.2 billion) appear at the top, but there is also a significant impact on risk and production chain items, such as pesticides (R$ 20.4966 billion) and other segments cited as affected (e.g.: medicines, vaccines, automotive parts, tires).
The damage is not only financial: police and health organizations treat illicit trade as a threat to public safety and health. INTERPOL states that organized crime groups manufacture and distribute illicit products with disregard for health and safety risks; It cites categories such as cosmetics, medicines and medical devices, food and beverages, electronics, motor parts, construction materials, and pesticides, and points out that illicit trafficking generates profits for transnational organized crime and can finance other serious crimes.
In the same vein, the World Health Organization documents the specific impact of "substandard and falsified medical products": it estimates that at least 1 in 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified, and that countries spend about $30.5 billion/year on these products. The WHO also highlights sales via online channels and informal markets as risk factors.
To illustrate the seriousness of the problem in Brazil, at the end of the year 2025 6 people died in Brazil after drinking counterfeit beverages, containing methanol, almost 150 notifications were registered of which 41 cases were confirmed, covering 9 states in Brazil. At the regulatory and national enforcement level, in only one operation announced by the Federal Revenue of Brazil ("True or False", in 2025) describes the presence of counterfeit goods resulting from smuggling and points to the expectation of seizures of up to R$ 7 million, characterizing direct damage to merchants and legal producers and mentioning financial impact for organized crime.
To contextualize the environment of illegality more broadly, ETCO and FGV IBRE report the Underground Economy Index (IES), indicating an approximate share of 17.8% of GDP in 2022 and describing the underground economy as deliberately unreported production for tax evasion and other legal obligations, a background that helps explain why anti-illegality initiatives have economic and competitive relevance.
Anti-counterfeiting as a governance and M&A strategy
From a corporate point of view, anti-counterfeiting is an agenda that connects four axes: business continuity, brand protection, compliance, and risk management. The reason is simple: counterfeiting operates as an "invisible tax" on margin and consumer confidence and tends to escalate when the digital channel reduces distribution costs and increases reach. The OECD documents that illicit networks have used e-commerce to sell counterfeit products and that the association between e-commerce and seizures is strengthened when considering indicators of misuse of small packages; in a case study from the European Union, 91% of e-commerce-related detentions involved postal service (vs. 45% when not linked to e-commerce).
This has direct implications for governance: if the company does not measure the problem (where it appears, in which channel, with what standard, in what geography), it cannot either prioritize defense or prove the effectiveness of actions over time. This is why modern strategies tend to combine unit authentication + data + operational response (takedowns, legal actions, recall when applicable, and cooperation with authorities).
In Brazil, there are obvious signs of institutionalization of the issue. The National Council for Combating Piracy and Crimes against Intellectual Property (CNCP), linked to Senacon/MJSP, describes in an annual report that 2024 was marked by initiatives to combat piracy and protect intellectual property rights, including operations, campaigns, and cooperation.
A practical dimension of this agenda is to reduce contact and test "bottlenecks" at the inspection end. The BPTO announced a new feature of the National Directory for Combating Trademark Counterfeiting, with a public page for authorities to access contacts of brand representatives and speed up operations when there is suspicion of counterfeit product, explicitly recognizing the need for the trademark owner to manifest itself in order to advance in administrative seizure proceedings.
In M&A and fundraising, the theme comes up because brand, intellectual property and market trust are economic assets. The International Trademark Association explains (in a technical conference program) that IP due diligence in M&A transactions seeks to identify, assess and report risks that may impact the value and structuring of the deal, integrating a review of intangible assets and associated risks.
In practice, relevant exposure to counterfeiting can influence how companies estimate factors such as lost sales, price reductions, increased enforcement and warranty expenses, reputational damage, and regulatory risks. These influences are often considered when discussing risk management and value protection during transactions.
Full stack anti-counterfeiting technology: how it works in practice
A "full stack" approach against counterfeiting combines physical and digital layers, with a dual goal: to hinder replication and to increase detection/actionability. Three principles summarize the state of the art:
First, per-unit authentication (serialization/unique identity): instead of trying to "protect only the package", a verifiable identity is created on the unit, connected to a backend that verifies that the validation attempt makes sense (e.g., first read, location, channel, behavior pattern). This is particularly important because copiers can replicate static elements; The differential becomes the behavior of the system (detection by default + uniqueness + audit trail). At Acviss, the Certify and Uniqolabel solutions work in an integrated way to enable authentication by unit with a unique and verifiable digital identity. The Uniqolabel is the secure label applied to each item, incorporating a unique identifier that connects the product to the digital environment. Certify is the backend platform that generates, validates, and monitors these identifiers, applying behavioral intelligence and anti-fraud rules in real time. Together, they enable traceability, audit trail, and anomaly detection based on usage patterns and validation context.
Second, track & trace: tracking is not just about "knowing where you are"; it is about recording critical movement and custody exchange events, to detect deviations and build evidence. Traceability standards guidelines, such as those outlined by GS1 Canada ecosystem initiatives, emphasize unique global identification, data capture, and alignment of information between trading partners to keep a record of the product's journey and support responses such as targeted recalls and identification of counterfeits before they enter the market. This principle is met by Acviss' track&trace Origin solution, which is also GS21 certified.
The Acviss Origin solution is a blockchain-based track & trace system based on computer vision that monitors and records the entire product journey through the supply chain in real time, ensuring transparency, traceability, and an immutable record of movements. It provides complete visibility from raw material to the end consumer, helping to detect fraud, optimize operations, and reduce risks linked to counterfeit and non-compliant products.
Third, intelligence and response (online and offline): with the migration of counterfeiters to e-commerce and smaller shipments, the importance of monitoring digital channels, detecting suspicious listings, and accelerating coordinated actions (takedowns, notifications, enforcement) grows. The OECD documents that e-commerce has been used by counterfeiters and that logistics via small packages increases the difficulty of interception, reinforcing the need to combine technology and governance. The third principle is met by Acviss' Truviss solution, which is an online brand protection tool based on artificial intelligence and machine learning that monitors your brand's entire digital presence, including marketplaces, domains, social networks, and apps, to identify and flag fake listings, websites, or content. It aggregates data from multiple points and helps take automatic or manual actions against fraud, removing unauthorized listings and protecting reputation, intellectual property, and consumer trust in the digital age.
The WHO itself , when discussing the response to substandard and counterfeit medical products, mentions that technological solutions such as mobile apps, blockchain, and track-and-trace systems, when combined with a regulatory framework and cooperation, can increase detection and prevention.
Within this approach, the solutions described by Acviss are organized as a set of integrable blocks:
The authentication and anti-copy layer (product/packaging): Acviss describes an end-to-end system using AI/ML and "tamper-proof" and "non-cloneable" label/QR technologies, with a white label app, user-friendly interface, and real-time analytics for counterfeit detection and reporting.
The track & trace and transparency layer (chain): the Origin platform is an end-to-end traceability system using computer vision and blockchain, with immutable record and features such as product history, real-time alerts and geofencing, as well as integration with ERPs (as a category of corporate systems), with explicit objectives to combat counterfeiting and fraud in the chain.
The layer of brand protection in digital: the Truviss solution is an online protection with AI/ML, scanning marketplaces, domains, social networks, and app stores, creating listings and flagging abuse based on multiple data points ("500+ data points and flags").
The engagement and loyalty layer: the Bonus program is a loyalty platform with unique codes (QR/NFC/scratch-off), app/microsite, real-time analytics, and mechanisms to reduce coupon and redemption fraud, connecting authentication and retention.
The after-sales and warranty layer: The Assist solution is an instant warranty check and simplification of warranty management, with elements such as geofencing to prevent diversion and unauthorized sale, as well as integration into an app.
How Much Is Counterfeiting Costing Your Business?
If your business relies on brand, reputation, and trust, you cannot treat counterfeiting as an "invisible cost."
The partnership between Silveira Capital and Acviss was structured to go beyond the punctual identification of counterfeit products. Our focus is to map vulnerabilities, trace the origin of fraud, structure mitigation actions, and transform protection into competitive advantage.
If you notice:
- Unexplained drop in sales in certain regions
- Complaints about quality incompatible with your standard
- Price distortions in the market
- Difficulty in controlling your distribution chain.
… There may be a structural counterfeiting issue impacting your bottom line and your brand.
We are talking to companies that want to deal with this issue strategically, with technology, market intelligence and coordinated action.
If the protection of your trademark is a priority, let us talk.
Contact us for a confidential initial assessment and understand the real impact of counterfeiting on your business and how to neutralize it definitively.