When Jamila Gordon fled Somalia for Kenya aged 18, unsure if she would ever see her family again, her father, Abdirizak Sheikh Noor, gave her three pieces of advice: Make yourself useful, be the best version of yourself and have big dreams. Ever since, Gordon’s life has been signposted by big dreams. Her latest is for her business, Lumachain, to become the world leader in food provenance and traceability and, in doing so, set a new standard for the quality of what we eat and drink.

It’s a dream that was unimaginable to the teenager who arrived in Australia with no money and barely a word of English. “Those big dreams are not going to make you survive, they make you thrive,” says Gordon, whose business has raised more than $37 million from backers including Bessemer Venture Partners and Main Sequence Ventures. In October, American fast-food chain Chipotle also became an investor.