“While its core is sports nutrition, I see a huge opportunity for it [enfinity] in the functional beverage/energy space. It will be market changing,” said Larry Kolb, TSI Group President.
"We see incredible upside potential for enfinity, the sports nutrition and energy markets are always looking for innovation, differentiation, and efficacy, and that is exactly what enfinity delivers," Kolb told us.
“The applications for enfinity are unlimited. With efficacious dosing anywhere between 100mg to 300mg, it can be used in gummies, RTDs, energy drinks, fat burners, nootropics and pre-workout powders. Basically, everywhere you find caffeine, you can upgrade the experience and performance with enfinity,” said Shawn Wells, a partner of enfinity energy.
All the benefits, none of the side effects
Paraxanthine is a down-stream metabolite of caffeine. Indeed, about 70% of caffeine is metabolized to paraxanthine, with smaller percentages of being metabolized to theobromine and theophylline.
Speaking with NutraIngredients-USA at SupplySide West 2021, Wells, who is also co-founder of Ingenious Ingredients (ING2), the company that developed the ingredient, described enfinity as “caffeine-evolved”.
While 90% of adults routinely consume caffeine, about 9 out of 10 consider it a necessary evil because of its undesirable side effects. An estimated 59% of consumers metabolize caffeine sub-optimally, which typically means they have more side effects like headaches and arrhythmia than actual benefits.
A 2021 study, published in Nutrients, found that a single 200 mg dose of enfinity paraxanthine produced significant improvements in a range of cognitive measures, including memory, reaction time, and attention.
“enfinity bypasses the side-effect ridden middlemen (theophylline, theobromine and caffeine itself) and goes straight to work delivering newfound energy without jitters, anxiety, crashes or sleep problems,” said Wells in a press release about the new distribution deal with TSI.
The partners of enfinity energy, LLC are also the founders of Ingenious Ingredients. Both companies are led by Shawn Wells, Martin Purpura, PhD, Kylin Liao, and Ralf Jäger, PhD.
“Product formulators, product designers and manufacturers are looking for ultra-premium ingredients that create differentiation; enfinity provides a unique selling proposition for stand-out brands in a highly saturated look-alike market,” said Wells, adding that enfinity is less bitter than caffeine.
“enfinity is becoming very popular,” added Kolb. “It is a well-developed ingredient that is disrupting the industry with real innovation that has not been seen in years. We are very excited to partner with enfinity energy to bring this best-in-class, revolutionary ingredient to our customers worldwide.”
Benefits
The companies list the documented benefits of paraxanthine to include: Energy, focus, and wakeful clarity; Enhanced mood and sense of wellbeing; Neuroprotective cognitive accelerant; Improved reaction time and reduced mental errors; Increased caloric expenditure and thermogenesis; Significantly lessened side effects of caffeine with dramatically reduced toxicity; and More consistent results: eliminates caffeine’s genetic variability, reducing crashes and anxiety.
“TSI has a tremendous global presence in nutraceuticals, and validates its ingredients with science,” said Wells. “It’s a company that works with branded ingredients and has already demonstrated at the highest levels that they want enfinity to be successful. That is critical to our team and the long-term success of this groundbreaking ingredient.”
Global
The agreement is for global distribution. Kolb told us that the primary markets for enfinity are North America, South America, the APAC region, and the EU, and the company is actively working towards multiple regulatory approvals in foreign countries, ensuring the proper steps are taken to be able to bring enfinity to more regions as soon as possible.
