Reinventing Product Authentication with Quantum Science

Background

Quantatrace is a Glasgow-based deep-tech start-up building physical authentication technology that binds a product’s optical signature to its digital identity, closing the gap between digital serialisation, which proves a code is valid, and true product authentication, which proves the physical item is genuine. The company’s founder has been part of multiple enterprise system deployments, most recently DEUTZ in Germany for their S/4HANA implementation across their China and Germany plants, and is certified in SAP ICSM and serialisation (SAP ATTP), an origin that shaped Quantatrace’s central thesis: today’s systems verify the number, not the product.

Turning that thesis into a working system required a validated library of luminescent nanoparticle formulations, characterised against the real substrates used across Quantatrace’s target sectors. As an early-stage company without in-house chemistry infrastructure, this meant finding an academic partner combining specialist nanoparticle synthesis expertise with appropriately equipped laboratory facilities, a combination that could not be sourced through a commercial contract research organisation.

The Challenge

Counterfeiting is a persistent, costly problem across global supply chains, and in pharmaceuticals it is a matter of patient safety: the World Health Organisation estimates that around one in ten medical products in low- and middle-income countries is substandard or falsified, with falsified medicines linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths each year.

The specific challenge facing Quantatrace was threefold: developing quantum dot formulations with consistent, tunable optical properties; applying them reliably across a commercially representative range of substrate types with widely varying surface properties; and characterising each formulation-substrate combination to a standard of documentation suitable for future patent filings, investor diligence, and Fraunhofer CAP optical reader calibration. The work demanded wet chemistry infrastructure together with expertise in nanoparticle handling, extraction and stabilisation, beyond anything the company could assemble in-house at this stage.

The Solution

Interface’s matchmaking identified Dr William Peveler, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in Molecular Engineering, Nanomaterials and Biosensing at the School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow, as the right academic partner for this work. Dr Peveler brings extensive hands-on experience with luminescent nanoparticles, including quantum dots and other materials, applied to sensing and biosensing research.

His laboratory provides wet chemistry facilities, including compressed gas systems, fume cupboards, dedicated chemical storage and disposal infrastructure, and spectrometry equipment, and is one of very few facilities in Scotland capable of supporting this work safely and to the required scientific standard.

Supported by Interface and funded through an Innovation Voucher, Quantatrace partnered with Dr Peveler’s lab to develop and characterise a diverse library of luminescent nanoparticle formulations for authentication use. The nanoparticles were modified and incorporated into proprietary formulations, and deposition optimisation was carried out within the Peveler Lab, giving Quantatrace a materials pipeline that is not dependent on a single formulation approach. Multiple deposition approaches were developed and validated for applying formulations consistently across substrate types, supported by dedicated in-house equipment for application and rapid quality control.

Formulations and substrate samples were developed in direct, three-way coordination with Fraunhofer CAP, who are concurrently developing the optical reader system for Quantatrace’s authentication platform, ensuring the materials library was calibrated to the reader hardware’s detection specifications from the outset, rather than adapted to it after the fact.

Company Benefits

• A validated TRL4 materials library, advanced from TRL3 through this project, is a core technical asset underpinning Quantatrace’s wider R&D programme.
• Experimental data from the project shaped a UK patent application filed in January 2026, with a second pharma-specific application now in preparation (detail withheld pending prosecution), strengthening Quantatrace’s IP position ahead of further fundraising.
• Physical prototype samples produced during the project now support early commercial conversations across pharmaceutical and other critical supply chains.
• The collaboration gave Quantatrace access to specialist wet chemistry infrastructure and expertise in quantum dot handling, extraction and stabilisation that an early-stage company could not have built or bought in-house.
• All project milestones and deliverables were completed on time and within budget, to a standard of scientific documentation Quantatrace can rely on for future patent, investor, and regulatory purposes.

Academic Benefits

• The project gave Dr Peveler’s lab a directly applied, commercially grounded research challenge at the intersection of nanoparticle chemistry and industrial authentication need.
• A paid researcher in the laboratory was retained and was able to gain hands-on, industry-linked experience as part of their research training, whilst developing their knowledge of materials chemistry.
• The three-way collaboration with Fraunhofer CAP added a systems-level dimension to the lab’s work, grounding materials research in practical deployment requirements.
• The relationship has continued beyond the funded project, opening avenues for longer-term translational collaboration.

Next Steps

• Phase 2 collaboration, covering encapsulation and durability, materials library expansion, and Fraunhofer CAP integration testing, is being formalised through an Interface Advanced Innovation Voucher.
• Quantatrace is progressing the validated materials library toward TRL5 and industry pilot readiness.
• Building on the materials library developed in Dr Peveler’s lab, reader technology with Fraunhofer CAP, platform software integration, and the machine vision verification pipeline are now progressing, alongside integration with established GS1-based serialisation infrastructure.
• Longer-term academic collaboration opportunities are being explored and further work packages scoped.

Quantatrace is building toward supply chains where physical proof and digital identity verify each other. Quantatrace is the physical layer of trust.