The events of September 11 2001 got Durban-based company Tenacent SA thinking about the security of global commerce. The company designs ways of tracking and securing containers.
Aside from terrorism threats, cargo theft worldwide is a US$30bn problem and global trade in counterfeit goods exceeds $500bn/year. This is 7%-9% of total global trade.
The lack of integrity in global supply chains makes the control of fraud, theft and security breaches a daunting task.
"We researched the possibility of incorporating active radio frequency identification (RFID) technology into our product," says Tenacent SA founder Andy Brown. "But this technology proved too expensive, too technical for industry adoption and unreliable for high volumes."
Brown began to look closer to home for a solution, eventually stumbling on iPico, which develops passive, or batteryless, RFID products that can be read at high speed and are suitable for the harsh container environment.
They designed a product that marries iPico's RFID technology with a container seal manufactured by US firm EJ Brookes, which is the world's largest supplier of high-security seals.
The product makes it possible to log a container's movements around the world when it passes by a suitable reader infrastructure. It also alerts the relevant officials if a container is tampered with or opened without authorisation.
Tenacent SA turned to the Innovation Fund after funding local and some international patenting costs. "We had exhausted our personal resources and needed assistance in pursuing key global patents."
Funding was eventually secured, in exchange for 20% of the equity "with significant conditions".
Production of the first 16 000 units has begun in China and will rise with industry demand.
EJ Brookes and iPico have licensed the technology design from Tenacent SA and are marketing it worldwide.
