Cosmetics group L’Oreal has teamed up with specialty chemicals producer Evonik to invest in microorganism technology developer Abolis through a tri-party financing agreement.
France-based Abolis creates micro-organism technology for industries including food, healthcare and chemistry, and plans to work with L’Oreal and Evonik on discovering, developing and manufacturing sustainable ingredients for beauty products at scale.
L’Oreal’s corporate venture arm, Bold, and Evonik’s venture capital unit joined DeepTech & Climate Fonds, Clay Capital, Liberset and Icos Capital in a €35m ($38.6m) series A round announced today. Abolis will use the cash to fund product development and an expansion in its manufacturing capacity. It has been collaborating with L’Oreal since 2020 and they established a laboratory together two years ago.
The Abolis collaboration could help L’Oreal create make-up, colouration or ultra-violet light filters using more sustainable and environmentally safe ingredients.
Evonik, on the other hand, produces specialist chemicals and ingredients for skin and sun care, colour cosmetics, haircare and skin cleansing, and set up the Evonik Skin Institute in March this year to utilise its biotechnology platform to create new products.
Barbara Lavernos, L’Oreal’s deputy CEO in charge of research, innovation and technology, said in a press release: “By mobilising our respective companies’ research, innovation and manufacturing capabilities and expertise, we are building an end-to-end value chain that we believe has tremendous potential to be a game-changer in bio-based ingredients for beauty.”
