A TECHNOLOGICAL innovation from a couple of Singapore-based boffins will help Italy's luxury goods makers foil the gangs of counterfeiters that plague the industry.
Materials scientist Adrian Burden and engineer Peter Moran dreamed up their invention while working at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star).
DIFFERENT LIFESTYLE: 'Doing business is very different from doing research. There is a lot more pressure. You don't get a chance to switch off, even when you are at home or on hliday.' - Dr Burden (right), Singular ID's CEO, with Dr Moran, the firm's chief technology officer. Photo/ LIM WUI LIANG
Like several others who started out at A*Star, the two scientists have since gone out on their own and formed a company to sell their cutting-edge invention.
Their brainchild is best described as invisible magnetic 'fingerprints' that can be embedded into materials such as leather, or stuck onto goods as labels.
These unique patterns can be scanned and matched against a database to tell branded handbags, watches and jewellery from fakes.
It can also be used to ensure the authenticity of car parts and pharmaceuticals.
For Briton Dr Burden, 36, and Dr Moran, a 37-year-old South African, leaving stable jobs to venture out as entrepreneurs has been a testing ride.
'Suddenly, you've gone from quite a protected environment in a research institute - where a salary is paid, you've got good budgets for research and development - to the point where you've got to do everything from running the business, to financials, to human resource, marketing, and even drafting legal agreements to save money and time before they go to the lawyers,' says Dr Burden.
However, things started looking up when they finally got face-time with their target audience.
'We are talking to Italian fashion houses and they're very interested,' says Dr Burden, who adds his company, Singular ID, is about six months away from inking a deal with a supplier to these firms.
Their journey from boffin to businessman started when the pair were working on projects at A*Star's Institute for Materials Research and Engineering.
Once they realised the market potential for the magnetic fingerprinting technology, they resigned and started Singular ID in mid-2005.
After licensing the technology from A*Star, they took a small office space in an incubator in Biopolis and encountered the usual 'nerve-racking' funding hiccups.
'Some venture capital that we thought we had in place fell through. Luckily we found another investor,' says Dr Burden, who is Singular ID's chief executive.
Singular ID, which employs about 20 staff, secured its first big break in late 2005 when car parts maker Sanden International placed a six-figure order. A repeat order came in recently.
The company set up a subsidiary in Padua, northern Italy, a year ago to woo the Italian luxury fashion industry. It is also seeking business with drugmakers.
The plan, says Dr Burden, is to become the anti-counterfeit standard in the automotive, fashion or drug industries.
'If we can become the standard in even one of those industries, we are in very good shape,' he says.
At the end of the day, the rewards of going into business are more than financial, he said: 'It's nice to know that the things we invented are now being used.'
