Smart Containers Group is an established technology company that specializes in temperature-controlled containers for transporting sensitive food and pharmaceutical goods around the world.
The containers they provide are incredibly reliable. In fact, their pharma containers are 75 times more reliable than the current market leader with a temperature deviation of less than 0.1%.
This is important when you consider that the World Health Organization estimates that nearly 40% of vaccines are compromised due to a broken cold chain, leading to products being wasted or ineffective inoculation.
The pharma industry is estimated to throw away $2.5 billion worth of products each year because of temperature deviation during transport.
By addressing these challenges, Smart Containers has grown to become the 4th largest player in the B2B global pharma transport market in just five years, and have the biggest fleet of IoT (Internet of Things) containers for airfreight to date.
Smart Containers is built on a strong technological foundation with nearly 100 patents and over 50 working years of research. To focus on both pharma and food containers, Smart Containers Group is a majority shareholder of two fast-growing companies.
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SkyCell
SkyCell has become the 4th largest player in the B2B global pharmaceutical transport market in only five years. SkyCell is recognized as the safest system on the market and offers its clients 20% total cost reductions. They are looking to enter the direct to patient market which is significantly larger and driven by patient needs. They are also aiming to scale SkyCell to be the biggest pharma container supplier worldwide.
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FoodGuardians
FoodGuardians provide highly reliable and reusable containers for transporting food safely. Cutting-edge technology and infrastructure enable the freshness of a product to be preserved and provides traceability. They are aiming to grow quickly within the food container space as SkyCell has in pharma. Their goal is to enable food to be sent directly from producers to consumers.
Smart Containers Group which is based in Crypto Valley Switzerland is now seeking investment from the crypto community through the release of two coins. One is to raise funds to scale their existing businesses, while the other is to fund the development of a new disruptive logistics ecosystem.
Aiming to disrupt logistics with blockchain
As Richard Ettl, the CEO of Smart Containers Group states:
“Logistics is the engine of global trade. More than 17 million sea freight containers, more than 1 million air freight containers make 5 billion shipments happen.”
He then explains that to make each shipment happen, 200 documents are required or exchanged. This is where the management of Smart Containers have spotted a disruption opportunity. Currently, it’s more expensive to administer than execute a shipment.
The problem is the logistics process is currently centralized, requiring large teams on all sides to tackle the flood of emails and generate the correct invoices, with a lot of inefficiencies and complexity. Some of the documents involved include:
- Documents of origin
- Material safety sheets
- Airway bill
- Bill of lading
- Transport order
- Customs declaration documents & bills
- Invoices
- Product data sheet
- Storage conditions
- Transport conditions
- Multiple service provider billings
- Licenses
The solution Smart Containers is proposing is to create a decentralized logistics ecosystem open to all industry participants based on blockchain technology. LOGI CHAIN will be the name of this ecosystem.
Each logistics unit (container, parcel, etc.) will be mirrored as a virtual chip on blockchain infrastructure. Relevant parties will be able to link required documents to the virtual chip and have them accessible to other related parties in the process (e.g., freight forwarders, contractors, customs officers, shippers, warehouse workers).
Documents will be stored on either a public blockchain (like Ethereum) or a permissive blockchain (such as Fabric or Corda) depending on the sensitivity or privacy required. All information will be available in real time, enabling parties to act quickly if there is a problem in the supply chain.
By removing the need for paper and disconnected information like email, this ecosystem will provide a lot of efficiencies reducing shipping delays, costs, and CO2. Shipping parcels will become autonomous entities that are trackable, invoiced automatically through smart contracts, and paid for in cryptocurrencies.
Most of the functionality will be available free to logistic companies and users to increase adoption. Add-on services will be available such as insurance.
Smart Containers Group Founders
Richard Ettl – CEO & Co-Founder
Richard is an entrepreneur who grew up in Vienna, Austria but studied at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and Stanford USA. He started his career at Bobst Group, a leading producer of packaging machines. He co-founded Smart Containers Group in 2012 and has lead the company to commercial success.
Richard states:
“Smart contracts will allow logistics to decentralize and become infinitely more efficient and sustainable.”
Nico Ros – CTO & Co-Founder
Nico grew up in Basel, Switzerland and studied mathematics, physics, and engineering. He won prestigious architectural prizes during his studies and became managing partner at the engineering company, ZPF. He also collaborated with the famous architects Herzog & DeMeuron, constructing some of the most expensive buildings in Switzerland.
Nico states:
“Our vision is to create a fully autonomous, integrated container based on blockchain technology.”
ICO Advisors
Smart Containers Group have an ICO advisory team full of respected names from the crypto world:
Smart Containers Coins
Smart Containers is releasing two tokens (SMARC & LOGI), therefore creating two opportunities for potential investors.
- SMARC Coin – This is a profit share token with funds used to scale FoodGuardians and SkyCell. 20% of future exit profits and dividends will be paid out in ETH to tokens holders.
- LOGI Coin – A utility token and the currency that will fuel the LOGI CHAIN ecosystems (payment of smart contract transactions). Logistics players will use it to gain access to and pay for a seamless and integrated shipping process with all documents put on the blockchain.
Token sale – ICO
SMARC Coin token sale:
- Total token supply: 150m
- Tokens offered in ICO: 120m (80%)
- Hard Cap: USD $36m
- Full token price: USD $0.432 per SMARC
LOGI Coin token sale:
- Total token supply: 100m
- Tokens offered in ICO: 20m (20%)
- Hard Cap: USD $4m
- Full token price: USD $0.285 per LOGI
Use of funds:
Thoughts on Smart Containers
They have put together a clever pitch as the success of LOGI CHAIN will lead to the further success of Smart Containers and vice versa. The LOGI CHAIN ecosystem could disrupt the industry, and it has been designed based on the challenges they have experienced first-hand from their five years being operational.
Smart Containers have already proved that they are an innovative company, with SkyCell providing the most reliable product available on the market within five years. Another reassuring factor increasing the likelihood of success is the fact they already have strategic partners (such as Cargolux and Emirates) giving their blockchain technology direct access to the industry.
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