L’Oréal Groupe has partnered with Abolis Biotechnologies and Evonik to discover, develop and manufacture purpose-made sustainable ingredients for beauty in order to meet L’Oréal's goal of achieving 95% biobased ingredients in its formulas by 2030.
The partnership supplements L’Oréal's partnership with Debut to develop 12 biobased alternatives to conventional ingredients.
The L’Oréal-Abolis collaboration began in 2019 and led to an extended lab set-up in 2022. Under the latest deal, L’Oréal has made a minority investment in the France-based Abolis.
The deal was executed via its venture capital fund, BOLD, which participated in the €35 million funding round that also included Evonik CVC, Deep Tech & Climate Fund (DTCF), Clay Partners, Icos Capital and Liberset.
“We are proud to invest in Abolis and expand our collaboration, working together as a tight ecosystem alongside our historical partner, Evonik,” says Barbara Lavernos, deputy CEO in charge of research, innovation and technology, L’Oréal Groupe. “By mobilizing 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.”
"We are thrilled to receive this round of funding which will allow us to take the next step in pushing the boundaries of innovation in biotechnology," says Cyrille Pauthenier, CEO of Abolis Biotechnologies. "Our collaboration with L’Oréal and Evonik will empower us to create groundbreaking solutions tailored to drive the sustainable transformation of the industries we serve including beauty, nutrition and healthcare.”
“We are honored to be selected by L’Oréal as their industrial-scale manufacturer of choice for this endeavor, building on a long-standing and expanded relationship between Evonik and L’Oréal,” says Ute Schick, head of business line care solutions at Evonik. “We are excited to be part of bringing new, blockbuster sustainable ingredients to the global market alongside L’Oréal and Abolis.”
