Food chain start-up sinks teeth into £2m funding deal

A specialist in food chain traceability born out of the Entrepreneurial Spark hatchery in Edinburgh has received a seven-figure funding injection.

Dr Richard Steeves, left, with Arc-net founder Kieran Kelly. Picture: Contributed

Arc-net, which was founded by entrepreneur Kieran Kelly in 2014 and now has offices in both Edinburgh and Belfast, has secured a £2 million investment to accelerate its growth.

The funding has come from Richard Steeves, who built up Synergy Health into one of the world’s largest medical outsourcing businesses before it was sold to Steris Corporation for more than £1.2 billion.

Arc-net’s cloud-based platform enables food producers and retailers to assure customers of the provenance and authenticity of their products using DNA technology. It already counts some of the world’s largest food producers amongst its clients.

Steeves said the fledgling company had the potential to revolutionise traceability in the global food chain.

Arc-net currently employs 20 people and has plans to increase its team to 50 people across Edinburgh and Belfast, with new jobs in areas such as development, data analytics, and sales and marketing.

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Kelly, chief executive of Arc-net, said the funding would enable the company to accelerate and support its rapid growth.

He said: “Dr Richard Steeves has an incredible track record, having built one of the largest medical outsourcing firms from scratch to sell it for more than $2bn.

“He is a visionary in the truest sense of the word, and the fact that he shares our vision for Arc-net is a massive endorsement of our service, our strategy, and the potential of our company.

“Arc-net’s solution gives companies and brand owners the ability to have independent validation of their food quality. Our service also increases the information flow across the entire supply chain, which helps ensure authenticity, quality, traceability and compliance, based on blockchain technology.

“We see significant demand for what we have to offer and this investment will put us in a very strong position to capitalise on that.”

Steeves said: “I am very excited to be supporting Arc-net and their objective to revolutionise food supply chain security using their novel technology.”

Following the sale of Synergy to Steris, Steeves has created a portfolio of early-stage companies in a range of sectors including healthcare, technology, aviation and hospitality.

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