News in Brief

New Security Ink from NanoMatriX

Hong Kong-based NanoMatriX has introduced a new high-security ink – called MatriX-Intaglio – aimed at protecting documents and currency from counterfeiting. It is targeting the new ink at the printing sector and government agencies.

Among the features of the new product is that it is infrared transparent, making it difficult to copy, and includes a fluorescent ink feature that provides added security under specific lighting conditions. It is also optically variable, changing colour or pattern when viewed from different angles, and can be formulated with additional covert and forensic security features.

NanoMatriX says the ink can be applied to paper and polymer substrates and has a 'thick, heavy consistency' that allows it to hold its shape when applied, ensuring durability and colour stability on either material.

New Name for Agfa Offset as Sale Completed

Private equity group Aurelius has announced the successful completion of the acquisition of Agfa Offset Solutions from the Agfa-Gevaert Group for €92 million. Following the completion, the business has been renamed ECO3, which it says stands for 'Ecology, Economy and Extra Convenience'.

The company, which was Agfa-Gevaert's largest division, is one of the leading global suppliers of prepress solutions to the offset printing industry. It had sales of €779 million in 2022, translating into a global market share of approximately 20%.

It is best known in the secure document and packaging industries for FORTUNA (its design software suite for high security printing, including banknotes and passports) and Arziro, a plug-in for Adobe Illustrator on Mac and PC, enabling professional designers to create designs for security documents such as visas, tax stamps and driving licenses, along with brand protection labels and packaging. It also offers Asecuri, its all-in-one prepress workflow for secure document production.

ECO3's software development teams are located in Israel and at its HQ in Mortsel, Belgium, where it will continue to be located on the Agfa campus. It has direct sales and service organisations in more than 30 countries and, according to the company, it will have the same organisational structure and customer-facing sales and service teams under the ownership of Aurelius.

META Continues to Burn Through Cash

META Materials Inc, the developer of high performance functional materials and nanocomposites, which acquired security feature specialist Nanotech Security Corp in 2021, has announced its results for 2022, and raised concerns about its future viability unless additional funding can be secured.

Sales for 2022 were $10 million, up from $4 million in 2021, reflecting the inclusion of Nanotech for the first time. However, organic growth (ie. minus Nanotech) was just 2%. The company reported operating expenses of $90 million, resulting in an operating loss of $83 million. Net cash utilised in operations during the year was $62.2 million.

In its year-end statement, META raised 'substantial doubt' about its ability to continue to operate as a going concern, its main problems being cash burn and over- reliance on one part of the business, namely security features via Nanotech.

Nanotech's security portfolio includes KolourOptik® Stripe and KolourDepth™, which offer effects combining multi- directional movement, 3D stereo depth and multiple colours based on nano-diffraction, along with LumaChrome colour shifting film for threads and patches, which is in use in 30 banknote denominations. It will shortly be launching a new 3D animated feature based on plasmonics.

Chekkit Looks for Expansion of Blockchain-Based Tracking Solution

Nigerian startup Chekkit has secured an undisclosed amount of funding to help it scale its blockchain-powered security and tracking solution for the pharma and consumer goods industries.

The company, founded in 2018, uses its platform to track the movement of healthcare and consumer products from the warehouse to the distributor, all the way to the final customer. Through its blockchain system, Chekkit produces tamper-proof unique ID labels in the form of QR codes or numeric codes that can be placed on premium packaged food and beverage products for supply chain and consumer counterchecking via an app. The labels can incorporate taggants, holograms and/or RFID.

The solution is backed by Chekkit's Consumer and Market Intelligence Suite for data collection and consumer engagement.

Since its inception, Chekkit has facilitated the movement and tracking of more than 50 million products.

Chekkit raised its recent funding from Adaverse, a Cardano ecosystem accelerator, with participation from existing investors such as RTA, HoaQ, Launch Africa, and Blockchain Founders Fund.

Company CEO, Dare Odumade, said: 'we are expanding our team by hiring more senior roles and launching in new countries like India and the UK'. He said India is a priority market 'because 70% of drugs sold in the MENA region are imported from India, while the UK gives us access to the Eurozone, which is also responsible for producing a good number of chronic medications shipped to Africa'.

QR Codes for Textbooks in India

The state government of Uttar Pradesh in India will implement an online track and trace system for textbooks to ensure timely, transparent, and paperless distribution of free textbooks among students. The online tracking system will be based on QR code technology and seeks to distribute 160 million books to 18 million students from classes 1 to 8 each year.

A private IT firm is responsible for the preparation of the online QR code mechanism. On a pilot basis, the education department will implement the Workbook Textbook Management System (WTMS) in 1,000 schools in Lucknow (the state capital of Uttar Pradesh) this month.

According to the Director General of School Education, Vijay Kiran Anand, 'the WTMS module will help us track the books at the various levels – printers, blocks, districts, clusters, and schools. This way, we can identify the level at which the distribution gets delayed and expedite it. We will also know the accurate number of books delivered to schools'.

In 2020, India's Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) tasked the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) with preparing textbooks with a QR code. The digitisation was prompted in part by COVID, and the need at the time for learning to go online.