Neo’s story on… the journey from early grit to biotech’s sense of discovery

Neo's entrepreneurial hustle began in early childhood. Living with his grandparents, he'd watch his grandfather sell "soft goods" (doeks) door-to-door, unknowingly igniting an early spark of inspiration. This entrepreneurial spirit continued to grow, and as a BioTechnology student at Durban University of Technology, he found further inspiration in a professor who consistently connected classroom concepts to real-world business applications. Neo vividly recalls the moment his professor introduced the class to bioethanol and explained how it was used as a fuel to power industries across the globe.  He was enlightened by the bridge between science, business and innovation, fundamentally shifting his perspective on how he might someday apply his own skills to future ventures. 

Neo went on to complete his in-service training at Smith & Nephew, a leading portfolio medical technology company across Orthopaedics, Sports Medicine, ENT and Advanced Wound Management.  Later a serendipitous encounter with an old university friend, who knew of Neo's deep interest in fermentation, connected him with the laboratory manager at the renowned South African Brewery (SAB). By the following Monday, he was their new laboratory ‘Dissolved Oxygen’ problem solving technician.  Call it fate or foresight, the opportunity landed in his lap, and Neo maximized every moment of his time there.

“I love to try new things, and the freedom that it brings.  I understand the benefit of staying with tried and tested ways of work but it makes me feel boxed in. I get more inspired and energised by finding new ways to do things and innovating.  It gives me a kick.”

Six years later, Neo was captured by the buzz around renewable energy and biofuels, taking him back to that bioethanol class as a student.  An itch he had to scratch he went on to start his very first venture, a biofuels business, something he had dreamed of a few years prior.  A crucial element was the focus on value addition, or beneficiation: instead of merely extracting fuel, the business needed to create a wider range of higher-value products from its waste. Neo’s solution: mushrooms!  He spent the coming years learning about medicinal mushrooms, building a biofuel business, forming a community based cooperative, fundraising, and all that goes into building from the ground up.  This period of profound personal and professional growth brought a stark realization: unlike global counterparts, the South African market wasn't ready for biofuels. In a country grappling with starvation, using food for fuel simply wasn't a viable path and consequently, the industry as a whole failed to gain traction.

In need of a stable income, Neo returned to his corporate role at SAB but as they say, once you have taken the leap into entrepreneurship the corporate mold never quite fits the same again. He went on to hone his skills in process management and lean manufacturing but the writing was on the wall, his entrepreneurial journey was far from over.  During his return to fermentation, Neo frequently soundboarded ideas with both his colleague and life partner, Busi, and with Sani, his former biofuel business co-founder. Sani had since taken up a position at TIA Bioprocessing Platform and had grown his network of innovators in this space to as far as innovators in Malaysia. Connecting the dots and tinkering with the idea of how fermentation could be applied to mushrooms, Sawabona Mycelium was born: harnessing the power of biology and fermentation, to re-imagine the future and re-work how we manufacture in a more sustainable way. 

“A combination of my entrepreneurial spirit, my love for turning biotech into business,  and using my fermentation experience and applying it to mushrooms just like I had intended with my biofuel venture, I was now able to envision how innovation could offer humans sustainable solutions for diverse everyday needs.”

Neo went on to apply for government funding to learn from the Malaysians and an inbound technology transfer agreement was reached.  But then COVID-19 hit, ceasing all travel forcing Neo and his amazing team (with support from TIA Bioprocessing Platform) to dig deep and find the confidence in themselves to tackle this mission themselves.  What followed is nothing short of amazing, successfully localising their very own innovation realising mushroom fermentation and its broad application of its properties for commercial ingredients.  Having also studied Intellectual Property Law, Neo was well placed to protect their innovation and they continued to build in-house.  The value of the business was quickly recognised, gaining crucial VC support from OneBio,a venture building business supporting biotech companies of the future. They were well on their way to pioneering a new path in biotech.

“Its easy to be enticed by what's happening in first world countries, the concept of fermentation has become a sexy topic but getting caught up in that hype is just a distraction.  Sawubona Mycelium is not a general fermentation business servicing all innovations in this space, but rather an intently targeted fermentation business that specifically focuses on the sub niche of medicinal mushrooms of Southern Africa.”

A true visionary, innovative entrepreneur, and perpetual problem-solver, Neo is perfectly complemented by his co-founder Busi, whose focus and detail-oriented mindset completes the perfect powerhouse duo for the Sawubona Mycelium business.  With a profound commitment to his family, dedicated team, and society at large, Neo is driven to push boundaries relentlessly, finding inspiration in the constant discoveries within their work and being at the forefront of societal change.

“Most of our discoveries that hold real commercial value have been born out of experimentation.  Taking those moments to reflect and allowing ourselves to experiment with no expectation other than to be open to what we may find is where success lies. At Sawubona Mycelium we never want to stop this way of work, it fuels our sense of discovery.”

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