Nektr Nutrition: Corporate Legal Support
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THE CLIENT
Charlie Vernon spent years in the military, competing at sport and pushing his body hard. In his late 30s, he started struggling with recovery and began looking for a product that would help. What he found surprised him: there was nothing on the market he would actually use. The collagen products that existed weren’t built for men.
So he built one himself.
Nektr Nutrition is developing what Charlie describes as the most scientifically advanced collagen product ever made, combining clinical-trial-backed ingredients sourced through a network of specialist suppliers. Two years in, the company has a product close to launch and is preparing for its next funding round.
THE CHALLENGE
By the time Charlie came to Tend Legal in May 2025, he had already started raising. He had investors lined up and had been working through a popular self-serve company management platform for start-ups to handle the documentation. It hadn’t gone well.
The platform could generate documents, but it couldn’t explain them. When technical questions came up, support meant being passed from person to person, with nothing resolved. A mistake in the share calculations meant that investors hadn’t received quite the percentages they expected, and with no one on hand to catch it or fix it, the problem had been left to compound.
It was, as Alistair put it, “a bit of a tangle.”
Charlie was trying to handle all of this himself while simultaneously chasing factory lead times, finalising his product formulation, and talking to investors. It was taking up time and energy that would have been far better spent on any of those things. Legal documentation wasn’t his forte, the stress was building, and the platform he was relying on wasn’t giving him the support he needed to get things right.
The company also had standard articles of association: fine for a dormant shelf company, but not for one with a growing investor base. Something had to change.
WHAT WE DID
The first task was correcting the cap table. That meant researching the right mechanism (a bonus share issue, which required careful analysis of the company’s position before we could advise with confidence), passing the required resolutions, and making sure every investor actually held what they had been promised. We completed the bonus share issue in June 2025.
At the same time, we moved the company onto a proper cap table platform, giving investors real-time visibility of their shareholding. For a company with a large number of shareholders, many of whom had invested on the strength of a personal relationship with Charlie, that transparency mattered. The company is now settled on Kudocs, a platform we use regularly with our investment round and company secretarial clients. Beyond the cap table, Kudocs makes passing resolutions and obtaining shareholder approvals quick and straightforward: important when you are managing a round with a lot of moving parts.
We then put bespoke articles of association in place. These protected Charlie’s position as founder while giving investors the governance structure they needed to feel comfortable committing capital. The right articles of association aren’t cosmetic: they’re the legal foundation on which a funding round is built.
From there, we managed the remainder of the round: documentation, investor communications, and completion, working alongside Charlie’s accountants on the SEIS/EIS compliance. The round closed in November 2025, with £525,000 banked and a further £50,000 agreed for the following year.
THE RESULT
Charlie came to us with a half-completed round, a cap table that didn’t reflect reality, and standard articles that left the company exposed. He left with a properly structured company, £525,000 raised, and a platform ready for the next round.
More than that, he had something off his plate. As a dyslexic founder running a one-person operation while simultaneously chasing factory lead times, managing suppliers, and talking to investors, the legal side was never going to be where Charlie spent his best hours.
Now it doesn’t have to be.
IN CHARLIE’S WORDS
“I’m very dyslexic and I couldn’t have done this without you, Alistair. Absolutely couldn’t have done it without you.”
“I need your help from start to finish. It’s a team effort.”
“You’ve always been calm. And that’s been absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much.”
WHAT’S NEXT
Nektr Nutrition’s products are approaching the end of their stability trial, with production targeted to follow. Once investors can hold the product, taste it, and see the branding, Charlie plans to open the next funding round. We’ll be with him when he does.
© Tend Legal Ltd. Published with Charlie Vernon’s permission.
“Before we were working together, I was writing my own headed letters to investors and essentially making my own documents, which I knew would have to be rewritten and done again properly. Now I can with confidence hand all of that over to you.”
Meet the team
Alistair co-founded Tend Legal with Shona on a simple idea: that small and medium-sized businesses deserve the same quality of legal advice as large companies, without the large firm experience.
As a solicitor with a broad commercial practice, he advises business owners on the full range of issues that come with running and growing a company. That means employment law: advising on settlement agreements, workforce decisions and the day-to-day employment questions that land on founders' desks. It means commercial work: negotiating and reviewing contracts, supplier agreements, and the commercial arrangements that keep a business running. And it means corporate transactions: from business sales and acquisitions to investment rounds, share structures and restructures.
Before co-founding Tend Legal, Alistair was a partner at Woodfords Solicitors in South West London, where he spent over a decade building a reputation for clear, commercial advice to SMEs. He is known for his calm approach, his ability to cut through complexity, and his willingness to give a straight answer.
When not working or acting as taxi driver to his three children, Alistair can be found riding bikes or skateboards, playing various instruments, or at church.
