10,000 Champions: Helveta's Patrick Newton cracks world's toughest markets
Spotlight on: Patrick Newton, CEO of Helveta. How this successful software entrepreneur is building a business in some of the world’s most treacherous markets to combat the illegal logging trade. This week, his business raised £1m.
Illegal logging is an appalling global issue that’s probably getting worse. Try these facts:
• According to the European Commission, about 19 pre cent of timber products used in the EU pulp and paper sector are of illegal origin.
• This illegal trade costs governments of timber-producing states up to €15bn a year via theft, non-collection of forest taxes and depressed timber prices
• In Indonesia, illegal logging costs the country approximately $3.3bn a year in legal revenue it would otherwise have gained.
• According to Climate Focus, tropical deforestation accounts for 25 per cent of the total human-caused greenhouse gas emissions each year.
For entrepreneurs, however, such challenges represent opportunity. To combat this global problem, UK entrepreneur Patrick Newton has developed technology that enables customers in the timber and food sectors to monitor assets as they move through the supply chain, providing traceability and verification. This week, Newton’s firm Helveta raised £1m in second-round funding from the Carbon Trust and other investors (Our sister title Real Deals has the full investment and advisory information).
As the only provider of a commercially developed, electronic traceability system, Helveta is uniquely placed to become the industry standard, particularly within the timber sector. The company works in some of the world’s most challenging markets, such as war-torn Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Newton has an impressive track record. Previously he was president and CEO of DACG Inc, a Texas corporation that provided software products and technology services to 70 of the Fortune 200. He took DACG public on the NASDAQ exchange in 1998.