L’Oréal invests in biotech company Debut

L’Oréal’s venture capital fund Bold has announced its latest investment in US biotech company Debut as it looks to rapidly scale the firm’s manufacturing platform.

Through the funding, Debut is also looking to meet the growing demand for products made using biomanufacturing, building on the existing joint development programmes of Debut and L’Oréal.

Debut’s IP portfolio has the ability to produce over 7,000 ingredients that can help to bring high-value, sustainable alternatives to the market faster, L’Oréal noted in a release, with the company particularly specialising in end-to-end discovery, formulation, clinical trials and the production of natural ingredients.

Its platform allows such products to be created in larger quantities, implementing synthetic biology to reduce complexity and deliver ingredients in as few as six weeks.

Speaking on the partnership, Barbara Lavernos, deputy CEO of research, innovation and technology at L’Oréal, said: “Debut addresses one of the beauty world’s fundamental challenges: driving innovation without the resource-intensity and environmental impact that comes with relying on traditional manufacturing alone.

“Cell-free biomanufacturing is not science fiction: it is here. We could not be more excited to be the first beauty company to invest into this technology with Debut.

“We are delighted with our partnership with Debut to create together stand-out active beauty innovations while protecting the planet’s resources.”