Orlando-based disinfectant startup Kismet Technologies LLC is ready to show off its new manufacturing facility near Orlando International Airport.
The company, recognized as one of Orlando Inno's Startups to Watch in 2022, will host its grand opening for the facility at 7101 TPC Drive, Suite 130, on May 4.
President and co-founder Shari Dingle Costantini told Orlando Inno the 10,000-square-foot space — 8,000 square feet of which is for manufacturing — will be home to eight employees, in addition to two workers at a wet lab space the firm uses at Lake Nona's GuideWell Innovation Center.
The lease for the space, which is owned by San Francisco-based industrial giant Prologis, is through 2028 and affords the startup to grow as it needs more room.
Kismet developed NanoRAD, a transparent disinfectant that kills bacteria and viruses within two hours of being applied on a surface and which can last on a surface for months. NanoRAD is going through the approval process with the EPA, while a second product based on the same formulation also is ramping up to commercialize pre-EPA approval.
The TPC Drive space is where the firm will make its main nanoparticles in a relatively straightforward process that involves using deionized water to synthesize them, Costantini said. Next, Kismet allows the nanoparticles to sit in a heating jacket for a few weeks to get the robust microbiome required to achieve the disinfectant's potentially groundbreaking potential.
To see inside Kismet Technologies new Orlando manufacturing facility, check out the above gallery.
Costantini said the firm's goal is to scale its manufacturing of nanoparticles in Orlando and to partner with a toll manufacturer that would do the end formulations and bottling.
The technology behind Kismet's disinfectant is a potential game changer across numerous sectors — but especially hospitals, said Kismet CEO and co-founder Christina Drake, one of Orlando Business Journal's 2023 Women Who Mean Business.
That's because its ongoing effectiveness is crucial for surfaces in hospitals such as patient bedside tables, curtain separators, bathrooms and other places most responsible for hospital-acquired infections.
"That's a big problem for hospitals," Drake said.
Costantini, who was brought on at the company in 2022 for her experience founding and growing Casselberry-based Avant Healthcare Professionals, said Kismet spent about $200,000 to get the new facility going. She noted they were able to secure much of the manufacturing equipment via auction, which created substantial savings.
Now, the hope is for the firm to continue grow — with Orlando as its home base.
"To be the sole large scale manufacturer of this technology here in Orlando is a pretty big deal," Drake said.
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