Dot Ingredients: Bringing clean chemistry to everyday products

From cosmetics and soaps to pharmaceuticals, cleaning sprays and foods — surfactants are everywhere, even if most of us have never heard of them. AUT spin-out Dot Ingredients has developed a sustainable new alternative that could change the game.

Surfactants are the critical ingredients that change the way water behaves — the invisible workhorses behind everything from cosmetics and cleaning agents to agricultural treatments and industrial coatings. But 95% of surfactants today are made from petrochemicals or palm oil, which come with major environmental costs.

That’s where Dot Ingredients comes in.

Developed by scientist Dr Jack Chen at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Dot’s solution is a new kind of surfactant made from cellulose — a cheap, biodegradable and abundant material found in wood pulp. The result is a powerful, sustainable alternative that could help clean up an NZ$85 billion global industry.

Dr Michael Fielding of AUT Ventures is now Dot’s CEO, stepping back to part-time at AUT after supporting the technology’s commercialisation for around five years.

“Demand for surfactants is growing six times faster than the global population,” says Michael. “The industry is crying out for a renewable feedstock which also decreases supply chain risks. We make surfactants from wood pulp — a surplus resource in major markets like Europe and North America due to falling demand for paper — to offer a solution that’s scalable and sustainable.”

Dot’s surfactant particles, called Celluspheres™, are significantly larger than traditional surfactant molecules, making them four times more effective – and with less surfactant required, that means a much smaller environmental footprint.

“The first man-made surfactant was soap, invented in Babylon nearly 5,000 years ago. Until now, surfactants have all been molecules – but we’re making surfactants from particles, which are around a million times bigger. That’s why we say we’re the most disruptive surfactant in 5,000 years,” says Jack.

Inventor Dr Jack Chen

From research to real-world application

Dot Ingredients’ journey from lab to market has been led by AUT Ventures, supported by crucial PreSeed Accelerator Funding (PSAF) from KiwiNet.

Initial Tier 1 PSAF enabled the team to identify cosmetics and personal care as their ideal beachhead market.

“It’s a broad market — everything from skincare to makeup and sunscreen — with strong demand for ethical, high-performance products,” explains Michael. “That early market validation was crucial.”

Tier 2 PSAF then helped bring on key expertise, including chemist Victor Yim, now Dot’s Head of Product. Formerly with skincare brand Snowberry, Victor ensured the product met real-world performance standards.

The funding also supported a techno-economic analysis to validate Dot’s cost model and commercial potential.

“PreSeed Accelerator Funding from KiwiNet has been transformative. It helped us find the right market, bring in the right people, and prove we can do this at scale — all the things that make or break an innovation at this stage,” says Jack.

Where to from here?

In May 2025, Dot Ingredients secured $350,000 in investment from Motion Capital, alongside the Climate Venture Capital Fund and the newly launched AUT Innovation Fund — a $5 million initiative from AUT Ventures to help researchers turn bold ideas into real-world impact.

With fresh backing, Dot is now focused on demonstrating product performance in commercial applications and strengthening industry partnerships. The next goal: raising a Seed round to scale production and build market traction.

“This is a technology with global potential,” says Michael. “It’s scalable, it can be applied to multiple industries, and the demand for sustainable solutions is only growing.”

He hopes Dot will continue to grow in partnership with AUT. “There’s huge potential for a long-term research programme around particle surfactants, which could run in parallel with the company scaling up the first product. We also hope we can inspire other AUT researchers to start their own commercialisation journey,” he says.

With a strong team, recent investment and a clear path to market, Dot is well placed to deliver on its promise: sustainable surfactants for a brighter future.