Company: Authentico
Website: www.authentico-ita.com
Management: Giuseppe Coletti, CEO & Co-Founder
Founded Year: 2017
Headquarters: Napoli, NA
Description: Helps consumers recognize real Italian food and offers companies blockchain food traceability
Authentico Helps Consumers Discover The True Origin Of Food They Love
Giuseppe Coletti co-founded Authentico, a Naples-based food tech company in Italy. The company leverages blockchain to ensure transparency and traceability in the Italian food supply chain, protecting both producers and consumers from imitations. Furthermore, in 2018 the company releases Authentico, a free app is touted as the best app to help consumers recognize authentic Italian food just by scanning the barcode on the package. In an interview, Giuseppe speaks on a spate of topics. Excerpts:
Founding of Authentico
Says Giuseppe that Authentico was started as a consumer advocate, to reinstate the trust factor among consumers in the food industry. Too many scandals rocked the food industry and because of this, consumers lost trust in food brands. “More than half of consumers consider knowing where the food comes from as an important factor in their purchasing decisions. Just 26% of U.S. consumers maintain that they trust organic food labels. Food supply chain traceability certification with blockchain technology seemed to us to be the most effective solution to help consumers find out the truth about the origin & sustainability of the food they intend to buy.”
Blockchain – Challenges galore
“If we look closely at Gartner Blockchain Hype Cycle of 2019 the predictions that this technology would be applied on a large scale were 5 to 10 years. Last year blockchain applications to the agri-food sector grew by 23%, there are fewer and fewer announcements and POCs and more and more projects in production.” Adds Giuseppe that he sees risks as new opportunities that will finally come from the mass adoption of the new technology. “The only risk I see is that the increase in demands will bring unreliable solutions to the market that could create confusion and affect the blockchain’s authority.”
Key features- Authentico’s comprehensive platform
Authentico offers serious food traceability solutions leveraging blockchain technology. Noting that the company helps food companies be more transparent to consumers by demonstrating the true origin of ingredients and environmental sustainability, this entrepreneur adds that using their SAAS platform, food companies can enhance and protect their excellence and gain the trust of top consumers who seek only food whose origin they are certain of. “Some similar solutions in the market, collect data from a single source and notarize it in a single sequence using blockchain as an incorruptible ledger. Instead, we engage all companies involved in the supply chain from farm to fork. Each business, including the farms, is configured on our platform and does its work independently. We track every single raw material sale transaction that occurs between companies, creating an unbreakable link between all the ingredients involved in the creation of a product through the production processes as well.”
Leadership traits
An entrepreneur who does not give up in the face of obstacles, says that he has always faced challenges head-on. Quip him on how leaders can overcome the fear of failure in the business world, and he says, “I am Italian, and unlike in the United States, in Italy failure is experienced very seriously, something to be ashamed of. But I always thought that failure is a part of the game, you can lose a few battles, the important point is to win the war.” He also cautions young Blockchain entrepreneurs, “sometimes you read that just because the data is tracked in Blockchain this means it is authentic data, obviously not. A system must be created to check the quality of the data with each transaction by trying, as much as possible, to take the data automatically from the systems, increasing the overall reliability of the solution.” Choosing the right blockchain platform and involving all companies in the supply chain are a key factor in the success of a solution. Not forgetting environmental and economic sustainability, he adds.
Authentico – Forging ahead
“We started by concentrating all our efforts in the food sector. Because we believe in specialization as the key to being a market leader. But we are receiving requests from other industries such as fashion, cosmetics and pharma, and we plan to develop solutions in these industries.”
“We would like to make it clear that blockchain traceability if done right is a reliable solution for businesses. Too many fake solutions on the market are dangerous because they can discredit the reliability of this technology and weaken its trustworthiness.”
