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Field Notes • No. 3 • July 2026 |
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A lot happened in JulyJuly was one of our fuller months. The process work reached a real milestone, we picked up a second order, we joined an accelerator that suits us well, we made our first pipeline samples, and when there was time left over, we did well in a few competitions. Here is the detail. Before that, though, one piece of news that landed just as we were writing. |
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In the lab The 20L work is done, and the 150L is nextWe have now fully concluded the 20L demonstration of our sophorolipid process, and we reached the titres we were aiming for, which are highly competitive. That closes out the 20L stage as a clear success. Since then we have completed our training on the 150L bioreactor, and our first 150L run is set to start on Monday the 24th of August. This run does two things for us. It validates the process at pilot scale, and just as importantly, it produces the material we need to fulfil our order from Oh Lief.
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Out in the market A second order, from personal careWe have received our second purchase order, this time for 5L of sophorolipids as a development sample for a local personal care company. They have moved into the final stages of their product development. If that work concludes the way we hope, it should lead to an initial launch order of somewhere between 25 and 100kg. |
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Backing Selected for the Savant Build ProgrammeThe timing of all this commercial traction could not have been better, because we have also been selected for the Savant Build Programme. Savant runs one of the more serious deep-tech accelerators on the continent. Their Build Programme is aimed squarely at hardware and science startups in Africa's green economy, and it is built around three things we need right now: getting investor-ready, opening up market access, and hands-on help with actually building the business. That comes through masterclasses, one-on-one mentorship from their investment team, and access to their network of industry experts, alongside a Demo Day and ongoing investor meetups. Top companies in the cohort are also in line for grant funding, and the strongest are considered for further investment by Savant. For us, the timing is the whole point. We are heading into a capital raise for our 10,000L facility, and this is exactly the kind of support, and the kind of room full of investors, that we want around us while we do it. |
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The pipeline Two brand-new molecules leave the labEverything above concerns our sophorolipids, which are well down the road by now. They have been in the hands of partners for evaluation for some time, they are what our first orders are for, and they are what we are taking into pilot demonstration. July marks the start of something different. We produced our first development-scale samples of two entirely new molecules, MELs and CBLs, and we are now sending them out for evaluation for the very first time. These are not established ingredients being reintroduced. As far as we are aware, neither has been commercialised anywhere in the world, and getting them out of the lab and into a partner's hands is a real milestone for us. It matters for another reason too. With these samples going out, MELs and CBLs become our second and third products under active industry evaluation, behind the sophorolipids. That says a lot about the local appetite for biosurfactants, and about the trust and commitment of our partners in choosing to work with molecules this new. Jody and I have each taken ownership of finalising one of the two processes. The two are suited to quite different jobs. MELs, or mannosylerythritol lipids, are unusually gentle on skin and are known for their moisturising and skin-repairing qualities, which makes them a good fit for leave-on skincare. CBLs, or cellobiose lipids, are strongly antifungal, which points them toward scalp and haircare. We are now sending these samples to two of our closest local partners. Oh Lief will look at MELs in a leave-on product for eczema and CBLs in an anti-dandruff shampoo. Immobazyme will evaluate the properties of both surfactants and where they might fit within their own development pipeline.
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On the side A good run in a few competitionsWe have mostly kept our heads down on the commercial and technical work this month, but we did make time for a few competitions, and they went better than we expected. FNF Afri GreenPitch ChallengeWe are one of nine Southern African startups selected for the FNF Afri GreenPitch Challenge, run by GreenCape and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. Being in the cohort has already been worthwhile. It comes with a capacity-building workshop run by RMB Ventures, where we sit down one-on-one with investors and business experts, and a financing workshop run by Viridian. Next we pitch at the final in Cape Town, in front of a room of investors, for a chance at R300,000.
Climate LaunchpadJody won the South African round of Climate Launchpad, the world's largest green business ideas competition, and will represent ReSurfify at the global final in Singapore in October. Falling Walls LabAndré came second at the Falling Walls Lab in Cape Town, which came with R10,000 in prize funding.
Agorize SlingshotWe were also named in the global top 250 of the Agorize Slingshot, out of a very large international field. Above all of it, these give us a chance to put our work in front of a much wider audience, and to see what comes back from that. |
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That was July. A month where the lab, the order book, and a few stages all moved at once. The 150L run on the 24th is the next big marker, and we will tell you how it goes. As always, if you want to talk about any of it, just reply. Until next month,
André & Jody |
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