ScanTrust raises $4.2m for business scale-up

Switzerland’s ScanTrust has raised $4.2m in a first-round fundraising that will be used to scale-up support and delivery of its product traceability platform.

The Series A financing – led by Credit Suisse’s SVC-Ltd venture capital unit – will also go towards developing new features for ScanTrust’s cloud-based platform which connects individual products to the Internet using proprietary product identifiers carried on QR codes, as well as an expansion into new business sectors and for business intelligence.

With ScanTrust’s platform, mobile phones can be used to scan secure QR codes on products and receive real-time data about their authenticity and origin. According to the company this can deliver “unprecedented visibility into their supply chains so they can monitor the flow of goods, conduct mobile product authentication, and engage consumers.”

The investment comes in the wake of several large-scale projects with food and beverage companies, a deal with industrial goods leader Leybold and a partnership with Ramon Chozas for the Argentinian government to apply the technology in the Argentine seed industry.

“Increasingly complicated cross-border supply chains and the rapid growth of counterfeit goods are challenging the traditional tracking systems used by companies,” said ScanTrust CEO Nathan Anderson.

“New digital tools are required to secure their supply chains and allow greater visibility at each stage, from sourcing to production to consumption.”