Combating counterfeiting with a smartphone
In a digital-first world increasingly plagued by counterfeit products, Ennoventure, Inc. is redefining brand protection through innovation that's both smart and invisible. Headquartered in Massachusetts with operations in Dubai and India, this SaaS company is quietly powering some of the world's biggest brands with cutting-edge packaging authentication technology.
At the heart of Ennoventure's solution is its patented invisible signature, powered by artificial intelligence and cryptography. This encrypted layer is embedded into product packaging without requiring any changes to existing production lines—a key differentiator that has helped Ennoventure gain rapid traction across industries such as FMCG, pharmaceuticals, automotive spare parts, agrochemicals, and industrial goods.
The technology operates through Ennteract, Ennoventure's end-to-end SaaS platform that enables brands to secure packaging with invisible signatures, while also offering deep analytics about product scans across geographies.
At the consumer end, the Vyu mobile application—customisable and user-friendly—allows anyone with a smartphone to instantly verify product authenticity by simply scanning the packaging.
With this seamless integration, Ennoventure is addressing not just the issue of counterfeit goods but also closing the information gap between manufacturers and consumers. Scans can reveal not only authenticity but also vital product details like manufacturing date, ingredients, expiry, and safety information.
Speaking to The Hans India Padmakumar Nair Founder and CEO of Ennoventure, said, 'The moment that sparked it was a conversation at MIT,', 'A classmate shared how a child dies every five minutes in Africa due to counterfeit antimalarial drugs. That statistics shook me. It revealed the devastating human cost of fake products, especially in pharmaceuticals.'
This emotional realisation quickly transformed into a mission-driven venture. 'We didn't want to build another expensive, disruptive solution. We needed something simple, scalable, and powerful—something that could work with what brands already have. That's how the idea of embedding an invisible cryptographic signature on packaging was born,' Nair explains.
The post-COVID landscape—with its accelerated shift to online shopping—has only magnified the urgency for such solutions. In India alone, counterfeiting causes economic losses estimated to exceed ₹1 lakh crore annually. Sectors like pharma and FMCG are particularly vulnerable. Yet with smartphone usage and digital awareness at an all-time high, the moment is ripe for consumer-driven verification mechanisms.
'Today, Ennoventure is not just protecting brands. We're enabling trust throughout the supply chain—from manufacturers to end-users,' says Nair. The company's commitment to scale is backed by robust investor confidence, with $13.9 million raised so far. Its clientele spans the US, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia, with applications ranging from personal care products to industrial components.
Behind Ennoventure's technological edge is a team of experts. Prasenjit Ghoshal, Head of Engineering, brings cross-domain expertise in security, finance, and telecom, while Nikhil Narayan, VP of Data Science, leads innovation in computer vision with a decade of R&D experience and multiple patents to his name.
The road ahead looks promising. With billions of product packages already carrying Ennoventure's invisible signature, the company is setting new benchmarks for scalable, cost-efficient, and covert anti-counterfeit systems.
'Our journey from prototype to deployment has been incredibly fulfilling,' says Nair. 'We've stayed true to our founding principle—solving real-world problems through innovation. While we're proud of our progress, we're even more excited about what lies ahead. The fight against counterfeiting is far from over, but we're committed to leading it—one secure package at a time.'
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