Sproxil’s Founder & CEO Ashifi Gogo Named A Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation
Cambridge, MA – Sproxil®, a leading provider of world-class brand protection, is proud to announce Founder and CEO Ashifi Gogo has been recognized by the Schwab Foundation as a recipient of the Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2014. According to the Foundation, Dr. Gogo is one of thirty-seven awardees ‘pioneering solutions for the social and environmental challenges including urban revitalization, renewable energy, unemployment and more.’
“Social entrepreneurs are an integral and increasingly sought after community of the World Economic Forum. We are seeing greater appetite among business, government and civil society leaders to learn from the innovative models of social entrepreneurs and collaborate with them in novel ways. We welcome the 2014 Social Entrepreneur of the Year Awardees who epitomize the best this sector has to offer,” sated David Aikman, Managing Director and Head of the New Champions Communities.
Sproxil’s flagship solution, Mobile Product Authentication™ (MPA™), allows consumers to verify that products they buy are genuine by using a mobile phone and a simple, free text message. The solution uses a scratch card method, similar to that used for replenishing cellular talk-time. This allows users to reveal a one-time-use code on products and text the code to a call center phone number. A response is dispatched from Sproxil’s servers, indicating whether the product is genuine, potentially fake, or stolen.
Leading pharmaceutical companies, such as Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Serono, IPCA as well as regulatory organizations in the emerging markets of Africa and India have been leveraging the MPA solution to protect consumers from taking potentially harmful counterfeit and substandard medications since the company launched in 2009. It has been used more than eight million times to verify that products are genuine.
The MPA solution can be used to verify any tangible item, and Sproxil’s solution is currently being implemented and used for products across multiple industries including skin care, supplements and vitamins, electrical cabling, automotive and motorcycle parts and agro-business, to name a few.
“It’s an honor to receive the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur Award and join a list of recipients that are dedicated to making positive, powerful differences in the world,” states Sproxil CEO Dr. Ashifi Gogo. “It not only recognizes our work to combat counterfeit products, but also helps us gain the recognition beyond countries we currently operate in, so we can have a greater impact in regions most vulnerable to counterfeiting. This helps us solve a problem that influences the quality of life and productivity of so many people.”
To read more and to see the other Social Entrepreneurs of the Year, go to Schwab Foundation’s interactive awardees page
