Supplement Certified, a Waterford-based validation business, aims to raise €2 million in funding within the next year to aid the company’s growth.
Based in the Waterford campus of South East Technological University, Supplement Certified was founded by Professor John Nolan and Alfonso Prado-Cabrero in 2023.
The business, which has six staff and has raised €500,000 to date, provides testing and certification to make sure that nutritional supplements meet required standards.
“For over 20 years, I’ve had the joy of working with nutrients that are used to help protect eyesight and brain health. We know that certain nutrients have a high value, based on scientific studies. What we didn’t realise was that supplements can be sold where what is claimed is in the supplement is not present,” Nolan told the Business Post.
“Supplement Certified supports supplement companies to help them validate their label claims. We partner with good companies that produce high quality formulations. Our goal is to get the industry to reach a higher level of quality in order to protect consumers.”
The idea for the business was developed by Nolan and Prado-Cabrero in order to address quality control issues in the supplement sector.
“I’ve run clinical trials for over 20 years, and this business exists because we identified a problem in our research. We got results we didn’t expect. In some cases, we found bioactive molecules in blood that shouldn’t have been in the supplement. In others, the patient was getting no response,” Nolan said.
“We had to test the supplements due to these unusual results. There’s a lot that can go wrong from the second the raw materials are sourced, to encapsulation, to protecting against oxidisation. The only way to protect against that is to have constant and regular testing of supplements across the stages.”
With Nolan’s core skills in research, he had the self-awareness to hire staff with the business skills required to evolve Supplement Certified.
“We’ve grown the business where we have people at the high end of their game working on the various elements required,” he said.
“We now have seven customers who are committed to our process. They submit all their supplements that they are selling once produced. We validate that they contain active materials and store over the shelf life, reporting back to them on the stability and quality of the product.”
Enterprise Ireland is supporting Supplement Certified, and Nolan said the agency provided important help.
“Enterprise Ireland has been fantastic. They did a full audit of our business plan, examining our potential growth and the ability to hire people in the area. We are in the high-performance startup unit (HPSU), and they also provide expertise in terms of opening up new markets. They have been a fantastic support.”
The business is operating in markets in Europe and North America with plans to expand further.
“We want to do more work across Europe and we also want to go into the Asian market. We want to work with governments, regulatory bodies and companies to show where we can enhance quality in the supplement industry.”
This Making it Work article was produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland
Company Details
Founded by: Prof. John Nolan and Alfonso Prado-Cabrero in 2023
Staff: 6
Funding: €500,000
