Dr Darby and Dr Meyer from the University’s School of Chemical and Physical Sciences were experimenting in their lab when they discovered a new way to analyse cloudy solutions. Over the past few years, they have turned that initial research into a product called CloudSpec. CloudSpec is a spectroscopy instrument that analyses opaque and cloudy liquids more quickly and accurately than traditional spectroscopy methods. This technology has several applications, particularly in the wine, beer, dairy, and environmental testing industries.
With the support of Viclink, Victoria University of Wellington’s commercialisation arm, Dr Darby and Dr Meyer founded their company MaramaLabs to support the development of CloudSpec. They have spent the last 12 months working as a Viclink Technology Business Unit to help develop their product and their business structure, and they are now ready to fully launch their business.
“The technology is at a point now where its commercial viability is ready to be fully proven,” says Dr Meyer.
“The support from Viclink has proven crucial for us not only in developing our product but also in enhancing the MaramaLabs brand within the New Zealand and Australian wine industry,” says Dr Darby. “Our relationships with key industry leaders played a critical role in attracting investment.”
MaramaLabs has attracted $600,000 in funding from Callaghan Innovation and WNT Ventures. Dr Darby says this funding and the full launch of their business will allow them to start focusing on how to sell and distribute their product.
“Our goal is to have a commercially viable product on the market in 2019,” he says.
Dr Darby and Dr Meyer are currently working with two major wineries in New Zealand and Australia who are interested in using their products. They hope to eventually see their technologies adopted across the food beverage, environmental, and waste water testing industries.
“We are hugely grateful for the opportunity that university-led research has given us,” Dr Darby says. “We’ve been able to incubate our tech here at the University and get it to an investor-ready stage thanks to organisations like Viclink and KiwiNet, who funded our early-stage research.”
Dr Darby and Dr Meyer also plan to use their investment funding to start employing the people they need to grow their business.
“It’s great to think that we’ve not only been able to create our own jobs out of this tech, but that we could potentially be creating jobs for others as well,” Dr Meyer says.
The MaramaLabs team will continue to work from Victoria University of Wellington and manufacture the CloudSpec product in Wellington using local engineering expertise.