Website Sproxil.com Type of business Private | Founded 2008 | |
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Key people Ashifi Gogo CEO
Alden Zecha, CFO Headquarters Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States Profiles | ||
Sproxil is an American venture capital-backed for-profit company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that provides a consumer SMS and App product verification service (called Mobile Product AuthenticationTM or MPATM) to help consumers avoid purchasing counterfeit products. The service was the first Mobile Authentication Service (MAS) to launch in Nigeria. The ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified company also offers supply chain protection solutions (including Track and Trace), mobile-based loyalty and marketing programs, and advisory services.
Contents
Sproxil has operations in Ghana (serving West Africa), Nigeria, Kenya (serving East Africa), and India.
Activity
Sproxil’s service places a security label with a scratch-off panel on all protected products. Consumers scratch off the panel at point of purchase to reveal a unique one-time use code. This is a form of mass serialization. The code is sent via SMS or mobile app to a country-specific short code, and the consumer receives a reply almost instantly indicating that the product is genuine or suspicious. The company also has a 24/7 call center to provide support during the verification process and take in anonymous reports of suspicious counterfeiting activity.
Sproxil’s services are currently used by several pharmaceutical companies in the fight against counterfeit drugs. The fake drug market, according to the World Customs Organization, is estimated to be a $200 Billion a year industry. The problem of counterfeit drugs is particularly acute in emerging markets; the World Health Organization estimates 30% of drugs in these markets are fake and may be very harmful to consumers.
To date, Sproxil protects products across over ten industries, including pharmaceuticals, agribusiness, automotive parts, and beauty & personal care.
Recent activity
In 2010, NAFDAC, the Nigerian government agency overseeing food and drugs, endorsed the Sproxil platform and the service has been widely deployed throughout Nigeria. In April 2011, CNN published a video discussing the role Sproxil played in the fight against counterfeit drugs in Nigeria.
Sproxil - along with Pfizer, Vodafone, and WaterHealth International - has committed to the Business Call to Action (BCtA), a global leadership initiative made up of companies that apply their core business expertise to the achievement of the eight internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Sproxil CEO Ashifi Gogo was praised by former United States President Bill Clinton, who described Gogo’s work as a “genuinely remarkable achievement.”
In February 2011, Sproxil announced that it had received $1.8 million in funding from Acumen Fund. Funding is being used to help the company expand into India.
Johnson & Johnson and GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) are using Sproxil services in Africa as is the Nigerian distributor of Merck KGaA named Biofem.
In June 2011, Sproxil launched operations in India and in July 2011 Kenya's Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) also adopted similar text message-based anti-counterfeiting systems. As of early 2012, Sproxil announced that more than one million people in Africa had checked their medicines using the text-message based verification service developed by Sproxil.
In August 2012, Sproxil and Bharti Airtel, a global telecommunications company announced a partnership to combat the counterfeit drug market in Africa using MPA. Airtel will offer the service absolutely free to its users and not charge for any SMS based verification.
In February 2013, Sproxil signed on East African Cables to protect their electric cables through the Zinduka Initiative. The initiative utilizes the MPA solution to help consumers verify that their electrical cables are genuine before purchase. This partnership marked Sproxil's further expansion into non-pharmaceutical markets. Other industries that uses Sproxil's solution is textile and clothing (underwear).
Also around this time, Prashant Yadav, Senior Research Fellow and Director of Healthcare Research Initiative, joined Sproxil's Board of Advisors. Yadav is an expert in pharmaceutical and healthcare supply chain management in emerging markets, was formerly a Professor of Supply Chain Management at the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program and currently serves as an advisor for multiple organizations in the area of pharmaceutical supply chains.
CEO Ashifi Gogo was recently named by the White House as an Immigrant Innovator Champion of Change and a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 for his work with Sproxil.
In 2014, the company expanded its MPA services, originally available to consumers by SMS and call center, by adding mobile apps and a web app to their solution suite. The same year, Sproxil became ISO-27001 (for information security controls) and ISO-9001 (for quality management systems) certified after a comprehensive review of its internal processes. Soon after, Kenya-based agribusiness company Juanco SPS officially launched a consumer-facing project that protects pesticide Bestox 100EC with MPA technology.
To date, the company has processed over 14 million verifications from consumers. This is the highest recorded number of verifications of its kind.
Awards
2014 Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award
2013 USPTO Patents for Humanity Award
2013 #1 in health care and #7 overall in Fast Company Magazine World's 50 Most Innovative Companies
2012 ISMP Cheers Award - George DiDomizio Industry Award
2012 ICC World Business and Development Award
2010 Honorable Mention Global Finals, IBM Entrepreneur SmartCamp Competition
2010 MassChallenge Finalist
2010 Mobile Infrastructure Award, MITX
2010 People’s Choice Award at Accelerate Michigan
2010 Prize Winner, African Diaspora Marketplace
2010 Audience Choice Award Life Sciences at Xconomy Xsite
2009 Outstanding Commitment Award in Global Health, Clinton Global Initiative University