Supply chain software firm finds fresh funding

By Helen Gilbert

- Last updated on GMT

Marples: 'Automated reporting, user-friendly dashboards, alerts and real-time notifications provide hugely valuable data'
Marples: 'Automated reporting, user-friendly dashboards, alerts and real-time notifications provide hugely valuable data'
Food tech specialist Authenticate Information Systems has secured a new funding round of £2.3m that will allow it to double the size of its software and data teams.

The cash injection includes £1.5m from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund with the remainder from existing shareholders including Summit Alpha and would allow the company to create 10 new jobs at its headquarters in Harrogate.

Founded in 2013, Authenticate IS provides software that allows businesses to track ingredients right back to the source and ensure they comply with relevant standards.

“All food companies have increasingly complex compliance issues that they are looking to resolve in more efficient and cost-effective ways,”​ Authenticate chief executive Paul Marples told Food Manufacture.​ “Authenticate is building powerful, technology-led solutions that can deliver the supply chain insight that foodservice businesses, retailers and manufacturers need.

Live compliance data

“This includes the ability to view a full chain of custody for multi-ingredient products with confirmed country of origin, while seeing live compliance data for direct and indirect suppliers through membership schemes such as Sedex, BRC ​[British Retail Consortium accreditation] and Red Tractor.

​As well as mapping out products on an interactive map, Key Performance Indicators relating to issues such as animal welfare and sustainability metrics can be gathered at each step of the journey.”

Automated reporting, user-friendly dashboards, alerts and real-time notifications provide “hugely valuable data”​ which traditional methods such as spreadsheets and static databases, could not achieve, he added.

Animal welfare, pesticide usage

When suppliers failed to meet the standards required to supply a product, customers were immediately alerted, Marples explained. He cited the example of members who gather animal welfare metrics from their meat suppliers being instantly informed of below-standard results for journey times to abattoirs, or if a fresh produce supplier records pesticide usage that exceeds a set threshold the customer.

Similarly, suspended or expired memberships are instantly flagged in the platform's certification area.

Authenticate IS works with 75% of the UK’s food manufacturers, five of the top UK supermarkets, global hospitality groups, and has more than 20,000 food companies worldwide registered on its database.

The latest investment brings the total raised by the company to over £5m.

“Authenticate’s software is helping food companies to meet the ever-increasing burden of technical compliance,”​ Graham Davies, investment director at Mercia said. “This latest investment will enable the business to further develop its technology platform and accelerate its global growth.”

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