The two founders of Helixworks, Nimesh Pinnamaneni and Sachin Chalapati, have a long history together. At age 29 and 28 respectively, much of their professional and academic lives have been closely linked. The founders met in 2008 and have worked together since 2012. Academically, they both hold a master’s degree in the field of biotechnology. It was throughout their undergraduate studies in biotechnology and during their masters studies that they both became fascinated by DNA. The fascination of DNA, how it works, and its applications led to the founding of Helixworks, a company that develops innovative solutions built on DNA that is one of the first four startups to be accepted into the prestigious dLab/EMURGO accelerator program. Today, Nimesh is the CEO and Sachin is the CTO of Helixworks.
Founder Profiles: Sachin & Nimesh
Not only are Nimesh and Sachin business partners, but they are long-time friends as well. Both founders have lived together longer than they have lived with anyone else in their lives. Nimesh and Sachin are also avid sports fans. Nimesh loves soccer and more recently has become a fan of MMA. Sachin is big cricket fan, and is even named after a legendary player from the sport, Sachin Tendulkar. Nimesh compares entrepreneurship to being like the world’s most exciting sport and Sachin would sum up the entrepreneurial journey as the need to, “survive”. One weird thing about both founders is their love for different types of food. Nimesh loves eating chillies and Sachin is obsessed with potato chips (and anything potato related). Nimesh even gifted Sachin an entire crate of potato chips for his birthday. According to Sachin, there were enough potato chips to swim around in!
Helixworks & dLab/EMURGO Accelerator Program
Nimesh and Sachin were first introduced to the dLab/EMURGO startup accelerator program through SOSV, a world renowned venture capital firm managing cutting-edge technology startup accelerators. The founders are very excited to have the opportunity to network with other individuals in the blockchain industry through the dLab/EMURGO program, and to learn a lot about how blockchain can provide fairness, inclusion, and opportunity by addressing real world problems through DApps that require scalability, sustainability, and interoperability.
Helixworks: Ensuring Product Authenticity
Helixworks is developing a solution that ensures food is fully authentic. This is done by adding DNA-based ID tags to products. These tags are unique and extremely difficult to falsify. This uniqueness comes from the nature of DNA itself. DNA is found in every organism on Earth. It contains all of our genetic information within each of us, and is unique to each of us. DNA is an extremely robust and long-term way to store data, while also being extremely unique. Rather than storing genetic information, Helixworks adds information to DNA-based ID tags relating to products. As each piece of DNA is different, adding unique ID tags to physical products will ensure total authenticity at every stage of the product’s journey. The information can be stored securely on the blockchain.
Helixworks: Improving Transparency Across Industries
Helixworks can massively improve the technological standards used across industries in the future. One industry in particular is the Ethiopian coffee industry. From the coffee bean farmers to the end consumers, there is a need for transparency at all stages of the supply chain within the coffee industry. The combination of Helixworks and blockchain technology enables radical transparency. Helixworks can enable coffee farmers to tag their produce at the point of origin, using DNA-based ID tags. Information about these tags could then be integrated into the blockchain, offering an immutable way to store facts relevant to specific coffee produce. When these tags are checked against the information stored on the blockchain, it will be easy to see the full history of coffee beans from source.
Through using blockchain technology, wealth will be unlocked for everyone at all stages of the supply chain. Retail stores can be confident that the premium beans they are buying are authentic. Coffee farmers can ensure they receive a fair price for their quality produce. Consumers will feel increasing trust towards coffee sold in retail outlets, and this trust will translate into increased sales. A higher demand for coffee with a transparent supply chain will incentivize processors to ship more beans, which will bring more profits for all involved. Blockchain brings the trust and transparency that is increasingly demanded by consumers globally. Ultimately, Helixworks can help create the national and global standards needed between all parties in a supply chain. Within the coffee industry, these standards will improve the relationships between consumers and coffee brands on the one hand, and individual farmers and processors on the other hand.
Conclusion
Helixworks is developing an innovative way of storing and recording product information through DNA. This innovative solution will ensure authenticity from origin to consumer. As a startup in the dLab/EMURGO accelerator program, Helixworks will receive expert support, advice and coaching from world-class blockchain experts, like Nicolas Arqueros, EMURGO’s Chief Technology Officer, and Sebastien Guillemot, EMURGO’s Lead R&D Engineer. If you have a project that requires support and advice in how best to leverage blockchain technology, be sure to reach out to EMURGO and get in contact with us today to see how EMURGO can help your business!
About EMURGO
EMURGO drives the adoption of Cardano and adds value to ADA holders by building, investing in, and advising projects or organizations that adopt Cardano’s decentralized blockchain ecosystem. EMURGO leverages its expertise in blockchain R&D as well as its global network of related blockchain and industry partners to support ventures globally.
EMURGO is the official commercial and venture arm of the Cardano project, registered in Tokyo, Japan since June 2017 and in Singapore since May 2018. EMURGO is uniquely affiliated and works closely with IOHK to grow Cardano’s ecosystem globally and promote the adoption of the Cardano blockchain. To learn more about the project, visit the EMURGO website.
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