"Former Qantas executive raises $3.5 million for anti-slavery blockchain startup — inspired by her forced labour as a child in Somalia", 29 July 2019

...Jamila Gordon...a former chief information officer at Qantas and senior executive at IBM — helms Lumachain, a software-as-a-service company with a big social purpose.

The company's product uses blockchain technology to find and track items in the food supply chain which could be unethically sourced or the product of forced labour.

This function is not just good for society, but good for business, as it can help reduce waste, avoid recalls and — for companies with revenue of more than $100 million per year —ensure they stay compliant with the Modern Slavery Act introduced in Australia in 2018.

..."The way goods move within the supply chain is still very basic, which means there's still a lot of waste, inefficiency and risk," Gordon said in a statement announcing the successful funding round.

"With growing demand for better quality food products and ethical and transparent business processes, plus a rising middle class across Asia, we see tremendous opportunity to improve the productivity, security and safety of what we eat."

Main Sequence partner Mike Zimmerman said in the same statement that "absolute trust, verification and efficiency" are needed in the global food supply chain and that Lumachain is "best positioned" to provide it to the industry.

The investment comes as businesses across all sectors are under pressure to ensure they are not profiting from forced labour or other forms of modern slavery.