Molendotech plans October launch of water quality mapping app for UK and US

App combines daily bacterial test data with rain and tidal flow patterns

Molendotech, a University of Plymouth spinout that sells portable bacterial water testing kits, is preparing to launch a live water quality mapping app in the UK and US in October, the company said. The app will aggregate data from Molendotech’s handheld Bactiquick devices, which detect E. coli and related gram-negative bacteria in under 15 minutes, alongside rain and tidal flow information. Artificial intelligence models will translate that combined stream into predictive models of water quality.

The rollout comes against a backdrop of mounting public concern about coastal and river water safety. The campaign group Surfers Against Sewage said it has received 164 reports of illness from beachgoers so far in 2026, the majority of them gastroenteritis, with ear infections, skin infections and other ailments also reported. “Rivers are probably worse in the UK than in Europe,” said Simon Jackson, professor of environment and human health at the University of Plymouth and chief scientific officer of Molendotech.

The company’s Bactiquick test works by detecting endotoxin, a molecule released when gram-negative bacteria break down, rather than by growing cultures in a lab. The result is a colour-change reaction that the device converts into electrical signals and a numerical readout on a paired smartphone app. A green signal indicates bacterial levels below UK and EU thresholds; amber and red warnings flag elevated readings. Jackson founded the company in 2018 after his stepdaughter developed conjunctivitis and a throat infection requiring antibiotics following a sea swim.

Bactiquick, the company’s flagship device, was launched in May 2025 at a price of £300, with each test sample costing about £25. Monthly sales revenue grew from a few thousand pounds in mid-2025 to a peak of £94,000 in May 2026 — a near 30-fold increase over the year. In the US, the company works with a distributor near the Great Lakes.

Molendotech argues that existing monitoring misses real-time contamination. Standard testing typically takes 24 to 48 hours, Jackson said, and beach samples are taken “once a week at best” under current regimes. Last July, Molendotech rated Saltdean beach in Sussex “high risk” on a day the Environment Agency had graded the beach “excellent” — a divergence Jackson attributes to the infrequency and delay of the official method. “Sometimes the converse — a red or poor quality result when the rating has been good,” he said.

The company also sells a 10-channel device called Bacterisk, which can run ten simultaneous tests. Both devices are rechargeable.

Molendotech has received £1.4m in grant funding from Innovate UK and other sources. Its latest £860,000 round, backed by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund, the Exeter-based venture capital firm QantX and private investors, will fund expansion into North America, New Zealand and Australia. Molendotech works with British water companies trialling the devices, as well as local authorities and councils.

Jackson, an inflammatory diseases specialist whose research has focused on bacteria linked to sepsis, said warmer waters driven by climate change are expanding the range of bacteria encountered in temperate coastal areas. “With climate change as the waters get warmer in Europe, in the UK we are starting to see species of bacteria called Vibrio,” he said.

That concern has been echoed this week by US public health authorities. Health officials in Louisiana urged beachgoers to take precautions after nine cases of infection from Vibrio vulnificus, a flesh-eating bacterium found in coastal waters, were reported in the state.