Greensphere Capital invests into Source Certain to create inflection point in market for origin testing and supply chain traceability.
- Greensphere Capital invests into Source Certain to transform market for verification of origin testing, scaling the company’s machine-learning supported platform to deliver results faster and more cost-effectively.
- Source Certain’s proprietary forensic approach enables companies, governments and regulators to verify sustainability claims, detect fraud, and dismantle illicit trade routes.
- Company has already exposed “Italian” tomato puree containing tomatoes picked in China’s Xinjiang region, warzone wheat from Ukraine, and seafood mislabelled in supermarkets.
Greensphere Capital today announced a strategic investment into Source Certain, a world-leading provider of scientific origin verification. The investment, made through Greensphere’s Gaia Sciences Innovation Fund, will scale Source Certain’s machine-learning supported platform, at the same time as integrating insights and innovations from some of the world’s foremost bioscience institutes.
Using a range of proprietary techniques originally developed to aid forensic criminal investigations, Source Certain provides rapid analysis of a product’s true geographic origin by combining advanced chemical analysis with AI, machine learning and expert interpretation. This goes far beyond traditional approaches to traceability, using paperwork or blockchain solutions, by reading the unalterable chemistry within the product itself to verify origin with high accuracy.
Source Certain’s clients include global retailers, national regulators, NGOs, law enforcement, and commodity traders seeking to enhance their commitment to responsible and sustainable sourcing. This enables them to fight food fraud, identify illegally sourced commodities, and provide science-based assurance for sustainable sourcing and premium quality claims.
The company’s investigations have already been used to distinguish the difference between lab-grown and mined diamonds, find the real origin of mislabelled ‘sustainably sourced’ seafood in global supermarkets, uncover Ukrainian warzone wheat stolen and sold by Russian businesses, and reveal that ‘Italian’ tomato purees in fact contained tomatoes picked in China’s Xinjiang region, where there is a high risk of forced labour.
The origin testing market is currently dominated by comparatively high-priced stable isotope ratio analysis. Because Source Certain’s services predominantly rely on trace element analysis, this provides a more accurate and granular origin result at a significantly lower cost.
Greensphere’s investment will enable the company to expand its presence in the UK and EU markets, which are introducing increasingly stringent supply chain due diligence requirements, at the same time as developing next-generation applications for agricultural traceability and timber legality verification.
Divya Seshamani, Managing Partner of Greensphere Capital, said:
“Today’s supply chains are inherently complex and frequently opaque. This creates challenges not only around ethics and environmental impact, but also with establishing fundamental truths. Where was this grown? Who handled it? Did it pass through sanctioned hands? For years, it has been either too slow or too expensive to get a clear picture of what happened on the journey from farm to fork, or from sea to supermarket shelf.
“What blockchain promised but couldn’t deliver – incorruptible truth – can instead be achieved with chemistry. With Source Certain’s technology, we can test origins faster and more accurately than ever before using hard science – no paperwork necessary. The product is now its own proof.”
Cameron Scadding, Founder and CEO of Source Certain, said:
“The future of trade depends on trust – and trust depends on evidence. We want to make forensic-level origin testing the standard, not the exception.
“We’re excited to partner with Greensphere because they understand both the scientific depth of what we do and the commercial scale it requires to have global impact. We’ve spent more than a decade proving our method in law enforcement and with high-value commodities. Now, with this partnership, we can expand further into markets where science-backed evidence is desperately needed.”
Media contact
greenspheregsi@hawthornadvisors.com
About Source Certain
Source Certain provides science-based solutions to commercial clients around the world. Our primary service is origin verification for food and resources. Origin verification validates origin and sustainable sourcing claims via scientific analysis of physical products to strengthen traceability systems and offer assurance in reportable data. Source Certain’s service portfolio includes an established and highly regarded foundational analytical and forensic service department that has supported global law enforcement for over fifteen years.
About Greensphere Capital
Greensphere has over a decade of experience investing in technology, companies and assets in the renewable energy, agriculture and forestry supply chains, to help solve some of the biggest systemic risks facing our generation. With core values that rank planet and people alongside profit, Greensphere’s portfolio is proof that ethical, sustainable, performance-focused investments are achievable without compromising returns.
Greensphere was selected as the first fund manager to the UK government’s Green Investment Bank and in 2023 launched its third fund, Gaia Sciences Innovation, a climate and nature technology fund for scaling best-in-class businesses that mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. Founded in 2011 by Divya Seshamani, Greensphere is the largest female-owned venture capital firm in the UK.
About Gaia Sciences Innovation
Gaia Sciences Innovation is a unique fund designed to invest in and scale businesses that successfully commercialise scientifically-credible solutions to the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. It holds collaboration agreements with 12 world-leading bioscience research institutes that collectively represent over 6,000 scientists and researchers, providing unparalleled access to their expertise, innovation and technology.
The fund received an anchor investment of £50 million from UK government’s National Wealth Fund and its advisory committee is chaired by Frank Mars, a member of the board of directors and former chair of Mars, Inc. The fund’s partner institutions include Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, Zoological Society of London, University of York, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, and through the Anglia Innovation Partnership, the Earlham Institute, John Innes Centre, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Quadram Institute, The Sainsbury Laboratory and the University of East Anglia.
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