From the Max Planck Lab to Your Bench.

Surfacto is a spin-off from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research. Our team of chemists, microfluidics engineers, and founders has packaged a decade of surfactant research into products you can order today and use in next week’s experiment. Engineered to make your droplets behave.

Our Roots: Great Science, Grounded in Reality

Modern biology is asking bigger questions than ever. Millions of variants, billions of cells, full design spaces instead of careful samples. But most labs are still answering them with the same tools they used decades ago: reaction tubes, well plates, manual pipetting. The methods haven’t kept up with the science.

Droplet-based microfluidics is the way through. It turns one tube into a hundred thousand independent experiments — the kind of scale that modern biology actually needs. We carry the Max Planck spirit of discovery in our DNA, but our hearts are in the lab with you. Our job is to make this technology usable: not just for the few specialists who can build a microfluidic setup from scratch, but for any lab ready to ask bigger questions.

Stable Droplets Shouldn’t Be Your Biggest Problem.

Droplet microfluidics is powerful, but it has a reputation: it’s finicky, it’s specialist, it breaks in subtle ways. That reputation is earned. Most droplet setups today are held together by deep institutional knowledge and a lot of trial and error.

We’re rewriting that. Our platform combines off-the-shelf surfactants, validated workflows, and direct support from the experts who developed them. The result: droplet experiments that work reliably the first time, whether you’re a specialist or running your first droplet production.

Meet the Faces Behind the Droplets

A diverse group of experts passionate about turning research into everyday solutions. We believe the best breakthroughs happen when different perspectives come together in an open, friendly environment.