Laava newsletter: August 2022
Welcome to our August Newsletter
As anyone who’s recently had the chance to travel again for business will confirm, it’s exciting to be meeting partners and customers face to face again – something that video conferences just can’t match!
We’ve had a whirlwind of activity over the last couple of months, with industry events, launches and partner visits in the UK, Sweden, France, Brazil, New Zealand, and of course Australia!
There are too many great events and experiences to cover here, but on a personal level, I have to single out the opportunity to represent Laava at London Tech Week, as part of a delegation organised by Investment NSW and the UK Department of International Trade (DIT) – with support from Think & Grow. This incredible opportunity also served as a catalyst for several UK and EU partner visits, and a number of other industry events taking place during the European summer. I was fortunate to be joined on this trip by Laava’s VP, Europe & Middle East – Francois Laurent, who you will meet below!
Closer to home, it was a thrill to take to the stage at Fruit Growers Tasmania, and to see my colleagues Fotini Delgado and Victor Silveira engaging with the industry and supporting key partners at key regional packaging events in Melbourne and New Zealand. The take-away from these and several other events we were fortunate to attend was clear: there’s a real need for the innovation Laava delivers, and getting our message out there pays dividends. Expect more of it!
We’re also thrilled to have formalised several new partnerships this quarter, including with Stora Enso – one of the world’s leading packaging businesses, with whom we’ve already commenced an exciting commercial collaboration you’ll soon hear more about. Kirsikka Vanttinen from Stora Enso joined us in making the announcement:
“Laava has a strong track record in delivering its connected packaging solution in several international markets,” she said. “It enables consumers to securely verify the authenticity of the product they’re buying, while also using market-relevant, cross-platform social media campaigns to encourage take-up.”
Kirsikka Vanttinen, Innovation Project Manage – Stora Enso
One of our newest customers, Uniagro, is also our first customer based in Brazil. We’ve joined forces to help them celebrate their 30th anniversary, with 10,000 Fingerprints on 10,000 products inviting customers to take part in an exclusive Laava-enabled competition. Read on to learn a little more.
And we never fail to get excited when we see our work with our customers come to life in the ‘real world’, even turning up at an Italian boutique off the coast of Sicily where we spotted them offering Laava-verified Hey Dude Shoes for sale! With more than 10 million Laava Smart Fingerprints out there and more coming every day, we hope for many more pleasant surprises like this.
Laava’s product innovation pipeline also continues to run at full pace, with a constant stream of exciting new product features and ways to make it easier than ever to get Laava performing for your business – thanks to the talent and passion of our committed engineering and product team.
As always, I’d like to thank all our partners, customers, investors, and supporters all around the world. Be sure to follow Laava on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and the newsroom and blog to stay on top of our customer and partner announcements.
Gavin Ger, Laava Joint CEO
Below, I’m with Tim Reid from Reid Fruits at the Fruit Growers Tasmania event
Why Reid Fruits keeps coming back to Laava
Renowned global exporter of premium Tasmanian cherries Reid Fruits came to Laava for its innovative counterfeit prevention technology in 2019. They stayed for our complete connected packaging solution and digital storytelling in a collaboration that has truly ‘blossomed’! The engagement strengthened year on year:
- 2019-20: a dramatic reduction in counterfeit attempts and increase in customer confidence.
- 2020-21: further innovation with additional partner forensic, traceability and marketing capabilities – and steadily reducing counterfeit attempts.
- 2021-22: extending the customer experience (both digitally and on-product), plus adding the assurance and peace of mind to Reid Fruits official supplier certificates. This year marked a milestone – no reported or detected incidents of attempted counterfeiting for Reid Fruits!
Tony Coad, Manager Marketing and Sales, Reid Fruits said that it’s increasingly clear that consumers, importers, and distributors greatly value the investments Reid Fruits has made in protecting the integrity and growing the appeal of its brand in key export markets:
“The new and secure authorised certificates this season with their own individual Laava Smart Fingerprint enabled our importers and their distributors to verify to customers they were authorised to sell genuine Reid Fruits product.”
Tony Coad, Manager Marketing and Sales, Reid Fruits
It was a great honour to share Reid Fruits journey with the industry at this year’s Tasmanian Fruit Growers annual conference in Hobart, where Laava’s Gavin Ger was able to get the fantastic photo above with Tim Reid – the legendary owner of Reid Fruits. Laava’s COO Fotini Delgado was also present at this great event, which resulted in several new partnerships and leads.
Keen to learn more about the Reid Fruits secure authorised certificates? Read the full story from AsiaFruit on our website.
Embedding authenticity into NFT artworks
Laava’s NFT verification project with Fishackaton is now live on OpenSea, the world’s first and largest marketplace for NFTs and crypto collectibles.
The auction site displays incredible artworks, the sale of which support coders and developers around the world to design, build and deploy solutions that protect our oceans. Not only can you scan the Laava Smart Fingerprint on each artwork for proof of authenticity and to learn more about the artist and their involvement in the project, but this is the first time the Smart Fingerprint is embedded into the artwork itself, as part of the NFT.
The campaign is organised by Eachmile Technologies, working for more equitable and responsible food production and supply chains. The cost of the Laava verification is offset by Fishcoin tokens that power the blockchain data records through the supply chain. They aim to empower the 100 million smaller producers that produce 95% of our seafood.
“This is one of the greatest challenges of our time – whole chain traceability utilising innovative distributed ledger technology, to incentivize and gain access to the essential first mile. Without this we cannot identify, verify and reward legal and responsible seafood production. We need this data to achieve sustainable seafood production.
We look forward to ongoing collaboration demonstrating how blockchain traceability of our food can be readily verified with Laava’s unique fingerprints.”
Eachmile’s founding partner Alastair Smart, Founding Partner, Eachmile Technologies
Earlier this year, Laava was engaged with Fishackathon’s environmental global hackathon as a bronze sponsor, providing 10,000 Smart Fingerprints for use in supply chain trials for category winners.
Laava in any language
As Laava grows internationally, so has demand for multi-lingual capabilities for the Laava Experience platform – and our product team, combined with our own multi-lingual team members have risen to the challenge!
Through collaboration with partners and customers all over the world, here’s just a taste of some of the recent multi-language enhancements made to Laava…
- For our first customer in Brazil, Uniagro, we’re working exclusively in Portuguese.
- In our work with Apple and Pear Australia Ltd, we ran a cross-market campaign. Consumers in China who scanned the Laava Smart Fingerprint on a box of Pink Lady apples enjoyed digital brand experiences in Mandarin.
- Shoppers in Vietnam, when they scanned a Mildura Fruit Co. export product, had a choice of digital scan experiences, in both English and Vietnamese.
Right now, Laava customers who choose to use the Laava Experience digital platform can choose to design in English, French, Mandarin, or Vietnamese. Soon, they’ll also have the choice of Japanese, Italian, Spanish, and German. Stay tuned for further updates!
Scanning is now faster and better with more on-pack options
Our engineers have rolled out a raft of enhancements to the Laava scanner, including super-fast scan responsiveness, a more intuitive scan interface, and more accurate detection – allowing the ‘white space’ buffer zone around Laava Fingerprints to be reduced to only 15%.
What’s that mean for you?
- Faster and more intuitive scanning for your customers.
- More room for your branding and story.
- Greater flexibility when deploying Laava on-product.
Pricing plans to suit every need
As Laava grows, we’ve learned more about the features our customers love, and how they fit together into packages that suit their needs. We’ve also learned that flexibility matters, and have a variety of flexible options to suit every type and size of customer need.
We recently updated our pricing plans to ensure we meet the needs of every business, starting from $299/month for our Essentials Package, which lets customers design their own exciting on-product and digital experiences using an array of Laava accelerators including our new drag-and-drop Experience Builder.
Of course, we also still offer Laava’s consistently best selling “Design Package”, which includes an expertly designed on-product and digital experience tailored to your business from only $499/month. And for larger businesses with greater need for bespoke design or integration, our Enterprise Package is available, with pricing tailored to your business.
And for our valued Laava partners, all of our plans and features are available to ‘white label’ and embed into your bundled offer, platform or app – along with a mutually rewarding commercial partnering model.
Interested in learning more? Contact our Sales team today to discuss the right option for you.
Team Laava
We’d like to introduce Francois Laurent, Laava’s VP, Europe and Middle East.
Francois is a career specialist in the cosmetics and beauty industry. His experience includes 10 years managing Parfums Christian Dior in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. He also has strong experience in logistics and supply chain, corporate finance and start-ups.
Before Francois took on the VP role, he was one of Laava’s advisory board members: instrumental in shaping our commercial strategy as well as developing key accounts. He continues to build Laava’s presence in key international markets, and help to grow both our commercial pipeline and our organisational capabilities.
Laava has worked hard to assemble our group of talented engineers, pioneers and thought leaders. It’s a privilege to have Francois on the team.
“I’m so excited to bring Laava cutting-edge tech solutions into the luxury industry that shaped my career. Laava creates a secure and direct link between consumers and the brands they love, building trust and super exciting opportunities. Laava’s solutions are truly game-changers.”
Francois Laurent, VP Europe and Middle East, Laava
Getting out and about at global events
It’s been an absolute privilege to attend events all over the world in the first half of 2022. Francois Laurent and Gavin Ger have been in the UK and Europe, and our COO Fotini Delgado and Business Development Manager Victor Silveira have been catching up with Laava partners in Australia and New Zeland.
Did we cross paths at an event recently? Here’s a snapshot of some of the places we’ve been:
- Gavin took part in the Leaders Panel at AUSPACK 2022 discussing advanced identification technologies for traceability
- Chief Operating Officer Fotini Delgado flew to Hobart for the Fruit Growers Tasmania conference in May, where Gavin gave an address on supply chain transparency and innovation
- Victor Silveira was at Hort Connections in Brisbane, supporting our APAC Provenance partners Matthews Australasia, Opal Group and Escavox, and at the Pharmacy Guild of Australia conference on the Gold Coast with Laava partner Canngea
- Francois attended the Med-Tech Innovation Expo in Birmingham, UK in June
Gavin was a delegate at London Tech Week, also in June at a range of venues and other events across the capital - Fotini participated in the Apiculture New Zealand Conference and Trade Exhibition in June, together with our packaging partners Pakworld.
- Victor was part of the PacPrint 2022 event in Melbourne, in concert with our specialist prepress partner Gravitas Media.
Looking to catch up at an event near you? Get in touch so we can arrange a meeting.
We’re particularly looking forward to Seafood Directions in Brisbane in September and Luxe Pack in Monaco in October, with more to come!
Laava in the news
Time to reconnect?
- For commercial enquiries contact Gavin Ger at gavin@laava.id
- For investor enquiries contact Patrick Michel at patrick@laava.id
