L’Oréal and Evonik have participated in a €35m ($39m) funding round in Abolis Biotechnologies, a French startup based in Genopole.
The funding will enable Abolis to scale its biomanufacturing operations, accelerate business development efforts, develop its own line of products and expand the activities of Microbiome Studio, its business unit dedicated to deciphering and engineering microbial ecosystems.
The investment is accompanied by the signing of a new strategic industrial partnership between Abolis, L’Oréal and Evonik to bring selected innovations to market for the cosmetic, healthcare and chemical sectors.
L’Oréal said the agreement will enable purpose-made, sustainable ingredients to be produced at the scale needed to satisfy global demand for responsible beauty and accelerate L’Oréal for the Future sustainability commitments that prioritize bio-based ingredients in its beauty formulations.
“We are proud to invest in Abolis and expand our collaboration, working together as a tight ecosystem alongside our historical partner, Evonik,” said Barbara Lavernos, deputy chief executive officer in charge of research, innovation and technology at L’Oréal.
“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,” she added.
Evonik said biotechnology as a lever for sustainable transformation is a key component of its growth strategy.
“Abolis' competencies in strain development and metabolic engineering ideally complement the expertise of Evonik in fermentation processes, downstream processing and scale-up for commercial production,” added Bernhard Mohr, managing director of Evonik Venture Capital.
Other investors in the funding round were DeepTech & Climate Fonds (Germany), Clay Capital (Singapore), Icos Capital (Netherlands), and the transatlantic investment firm Liberset.
