Haelixa's Michela Puddu on the Organic Cotton Traceability Pilot
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Haelixa AG provides reliable, in-product traceability to ensure supply chain transparency and integrity. The company recently trialed a service to trace organic cotton fibers from each farm of origin. We caught up with chief executive and co-founder Michela Puddu to learn more.
What was the pilot and why is this important for Haelixa?
Cotton’s journey from field to store is complex and consumers demand more transparency about the origin of the clothes they buy. Awareness of where and how products are made is a crucial first step for brands to be able to adopt more sustainable and higher ethical standards. Major brands and manufacturers need to know their entire supply chain, and current methods that rely on certification or external product labels don't guarantee full traceability.
We took part in the Organic Cotton Traceability Pilot. This brought together fashion giants, nonprofits and service providers to drive complete transparency in the organic cotton industry. The pilot tested technologies including blockchain, machine vision, artificial intelligence, microbiome sequencing, and in-product markers for organic cotton traceability.
At each cotton farm and manufacturing facility Haelixa applied distinct DNA markers, which could be traced later to distinguish the individual organic cotton producers and locations.
What’s next? The pilot included blockchain companies, do you plan to integrate a public ledger into your services?
Our solution is the blockchain’s missing link! Haelixa’s technology ties data about a product, like farm of origin or harvest date, to that product. Haelixa’s tracers are the anchors to connect real-world objects with digital traceability data, complementing blockchain technologies. This complementarity is reflected in the multi-stakeholder-effort in building a complete tagging and tracing solution.
You represented the Swiss National Startup Team in Venture Leader Technology in 2016, won Venture Kick in 2017, and Haelixa ranked at TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award in 2017. How did these help you move from science research into entrepreneurship?
We are extremely grateful to these initiatives for the initial kick into the business world and the continuous support!
Haelixa's Punit Mehra (2nd from right) at a gin facility in India with the pilot's local partners.
Haelixa's Punit Mehra (2nd from right) at a gin facility in India with the pilot's local partners.
