Collaboration with Zebra Technologies to Create Safety and Traceability Solutions

• Collaboration combines data, identity capture and Web 3.0 crypto technologies to enhance product safety, traceability, and data integrity for AI systems
• Cyber-physical trust platform M-Trust™ of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, will integrate Zebra’s TC58 mobile computer capabilities with its own patented authentication technologies
• Working prototype to be showcased at Hannover Messe 2025

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, and Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), a global leader in digitising and automating frontline workflows, today announced a new collaboration aimed at co-creating solutions to address challenges around product verification, authenticity, and trust. Through this collaboration, M-Trust™ will be the first cyber-physical trust platform with a mobile computer scanning solution for addressing the growing issues of product safety, traceability and counterfeiting.

“By combining our expertise in identification and authentication, both companies will deliver essential solutions for reliable data access across value chains. This integration builds trust in AI systems regarding data authenticity and origin,” said Thomas Endress, Head of M-Trust™ at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. “Our collaboration with Zebra presents great potential for customers to enhance their operations for more accurate and compliant processes that businesses and consumers can trust.”

“We are proud to work with our new partner on this important initiative which gives manufacturers and their frontline workers a unique solution to intelligently automate essential verifications in their manufacturing and supply chain operations, and great visibility of assets and inventory,” said James Poulton, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Mobile Computing, Zebra Technologies. “Together, we can support customers to become industry 4.0 leaders with connected factories and supply chains.”

With Zebra’s portfolio and experience in mobile computing, asset visibility, and identity capture solutions and patented authentication technologies of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, the collaboration is designed to create unprecedented levels of security, accuracy and trust in manufacturing value chains. This collaboration will also offer organisations high quality data for training and testing AI models, enhancing analytics capabilities as AI solutions are operationalised.

The first outcome of the collaboration will be a new handheld reader that will enhance the cutting-edge M-Trust™ platform, a secure cyber-physical trust solution developed by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Launched in January this year, M-Trust™ enables organisations to ensure product quality and authenticity across their value chains by immutably linking the physical and digital worlds creating secure digital twins. Powered by Web 3.0 technology, the M-Trust™ platform is designed to adapt to evolving technologies and regulatory requirements, such as the EU Digital Product Passport, empowering businesses to thrive in a rapidly changing landscape and remain competitive and trustworthy to consumers and regulators.

This newly created prototype of the handheld reader device consists of a mobile scanner built on Zebra’s TC58 mobile scanner and the security-pigment detector of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, the SEC-Reader to scan products and share data with the M-Trust™ platform via Wi-Fi 6E or 5G for verification. This all-in-one solution allows customers to verify products without switching devices and includes features for frontline communication, such as two-way radio, a 16 MP camera, and a 1D/2D barcode scanner. A working prototype of the mobile scanner, crypto anchor technologies, and M-Trust™ platform will be available at Zebra’s booth at Hannover Messe, Hall 9, Stand H71, along with Zebra and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, specialists who can discuss the solution.