Global Alliance Africa ‘More than a Woman’ Showcase 2023 Award Winner: Thuso Motau
In Sandton, South Africa on 8 March 2023, Global Alliance Africa celebrated International Women’s Day and hosted the ‘More than a Woman’ Showcase with an exciting project pitch session where women innovators would share their ideas with a gathering of investors, ecosystem enablers, and support organisations from across the UK and Africa, to help them scale their solutions to the world.
Congratulations to Thuso Motau, CEO and Founder, Mighty House of Soap, who was an Award Winner for Best Township Innovation and received £4000 in investment funding for continuing her business venture!
Background
During a period of depression, Thuso found herself unable to clean and look after the house and family. She realised that the only thing that inspired her to reenergise her wellbeing was the smell of soap which came from when her husband had stepped in to support her and was cleaning the house. This led to the creation of her soap company, using the cooking oil waste from her food business and turning it into a variety of sustainable cleaning products.
Problem
People in Thuso’s town were taking used cooking oil from their shops and businesses and dumping it as there was no means to effectively discard this waste. This was all contributing to the pollution in the area and Thuso was originally doing the same. She discovered by storing it then using the waste cooking oil as a base for her soap products, she had therefore created a sustainable way of reducing the waste and using the oil for a circular economy solution.
The biggest challenge was of course funding, and the other challenge was being a woman in a male dominated industry, but they have to suck it up because we are here to stay and we are here to make a difference!
Solution
Studies have shown smells can increase levels of the chemicals serotonin and dopamine – with pine, citrus and lavender being the natural fragrances that can ‘pick us up’, and they are commonly found in household cleaners. Thuso’s husband was using pine when she discovered this was the trigger for her wanting to use this more and do something positive with it. Mighty House of Soap has since employed two young people who go into the community and offer education. Thuso also wanted to look at creating a fully ‘green’ business addressing the product, packaging, process, manufacturing and disposal of the product, which the aim of creating a green footprint – this company is not just about soap. Thuso creates and provides cleaning products, floor and pavement polish, brushware and of course bars of soap and we are sure she will not stop there!
On behalf of Global Alliance Africa – We wish Thuso and her team continued success in the future.
For more information on Thuso Motau, visit:
https://m.facebook.com/people/Mighty-House-of-Soap/100065225335063/
Related programmes
Global Alliance Africa
This Innovate UK Global Alliance Africa 6-year (2019-2025) project funded by UK International Development aims to build new and stronger UK-African partnerships to maximise the creation of inclusive market access, funding and investment opportunities through innovation knowledge transfer between the UK, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
Women in Innovation
Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation programme was launched in 2016 to address underrepresentation of women in business innovation and to encourage more of them to apply to Innovate UK’s funding opportunities.