Pierre van der Merwe

Founder, La La Grace Bio & Ubuntu Medical Innovations | Biotech Platforms | Medical Device Innovation | Decentralised Diagnostics

Western Cape, South Africa

About

Founder, La Grace Bio | Industrial Biotech Licensing & Infrastructure | Bioactive Ingredient Platforms | Waterless Biomanufacturing I build biologically stable, scalable manufacturing platforms for the cosmetic, dermatological, and life-science industries. My work transforms agricultural biomass into standardized, analytically fingerprint-verified bioactive outputs—eliminating the biological variability that blocks regulatory approval and global licensing deals. As the founder of La Grace Bio, I developed a process-defined bioconversion platform focused on upstream consistency. The platform uses patented methods to process agricultural feedstocks, including Citrullus lanatus, into reproducible bioactives with confirmed batch-to-batch consistency. This shifts the challenge of biological variability from downstream optimisation to controlled upstream processing. Key Platform Strengths: Zero-water processing & circular resource use: Engineered for arid-region deployment and sustainability-driven supply chains. Standardized bioactives: Analytically verified for regulatory markets, de-risking formulation and product development. Licensing-ready infrastructure: Designed for global strategic partnerships across cosmetics, dermatology, and adjacent life-science verticals. My focus is on building manufacturing infrastructure that delivers reproducibility, regulatory clarity, and long-term platform value for partners moving into biologically precise ingredient supply chains.

Experience

  • La Grace Bio (Full-time · 4 yrs 4 mos)
    • CEO and Founder
      Mar 2022 - Present · 4 yrs 4 mos

    • Pioneering Zero-Water, Circular Biotech Platforms for Skin Longevity
      Mar 2025 - Present · 1 yr 4 mos

  • Chief Executive Officer and Founder at Ubuntu Medical Innovations (Pty) Ltd
    Jan 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 6 mos

    Founder and CEO of Ubuntu Medical Innovations (Pty) Ltd, a South African health-tech and medical device innovation company developing practical tools for decentralised care. Our first project is UbuntuScreen™, a smartphone-linked diagnostic reader designed to support low-cost colour-based screening workflows. The system is being developed to standardise key parts of the reading process, including controlled lighting, heat support, optical capture, cartridge-based calibration, basic colour classification, and result logging. UbuntuScreen™ is currently at concept and MVP development stage, with provisional IP filed and a focused prototype pathway. The first build is deliberately narrow: one assay, one cartridge workflow, one detection modality, and one simplified reader architecture. The goal is to build practical African deep-tech for real-world health environments, including clinics, mobile health settings, public health programmes, field screening, and low-resource decentralised care. UbuntuScreen™ is not yet a validated clinical diagnostic device. The next milestone is MVP development, bench testing, and partner-led validation.

  • Co-Founder at La Grace Global
    Nov 2022 - Feb 2026 · 3 yrs 4 mos

    • Spearheaded the development of sustainable solutions using Common weeds extraction technology for balanced nutrition, advanced cosmetic serums, and medical applications. • Led the innovation and product development process to create transformative solutions for La Grace Unique in South Africa. • Achieved significant milestones in creating proprietary products that support health, beauty, and wellness through cutting-edge technology.