Genomatica’s biotechnology platform is focused on harnessing proprietary microorganisms to ferment plant polysaccharides and produce sustainable surfactants for the formulation and production of personal care products. L’Oréal plans to utilize these surfactants in all of its product lines as part of its sustainability programme, L’Oreal for the Future, in which the company has committed to formulating products with 95% renewable ingredients by 2023.
About Genomics
Founded in 1998 by Christoph Schilling with partner Bernard Ballson, Ph.D., the biotechnology company has made several significant achievements in the past twenty-five years in the production and manufacturing of sustainable materials. Notably, in 2017, the company announced Operation Geno BG (Butylene Glycol for the Cosmetic Industry), and in 2019, Genomatica began shipping Brontide products on a commercial scale for natural cosmetics.
In June 2022,”Geno and consumer goods company Unilever have announced a $120 million project to scale and commercialize an alternative to fossil fuel-derived ingredients.” Kyle Huston, product manager for Genomatia, told CosmeticsDesign-USA.
Moreover, he added, “The project is set to disrupt the $622 billion home care and personal care market and will focus on commercializing Geno’s technology to produce a plant-based ingredient that can be used in tens of thousands of everyday cleaning and personal care products.. ”
In addition, in September 2022.KAO joins the Geno project to expand and commercialize plant-based alternatives to cleaning ingredients derived from fossil fuels as a founding memberHuston explained, to further the company’s vision to provide manufacturers and suppliers to global industries such as cosmetics and personal care products with sustainable plant-based alternatives that will lead to greener, renewable options for consumer use.
About the L’Oreal investment
The significance of an investment of this magnitude by a global leader in L’Oréal’s scale and scope is significant and represents the critical nature of the industry’s transition to more sustainable, renewable ingredients for product formulation.
“The cosmetic and personal care consumer base has become increasingly educated in the past year between media coverage, dedicated beauty websites, and industry testimonials.Huston said whileBrands are doing their best to keep up with consumers’ demands, lately they have been an ingredient supplier base scrambling to develop new and innovative ways to offer ingredients that are more sustainable, natural and more transparent.. ”
Regarding the Founder’s Guaranteed Ultimate Investment,The joint venture with Unilever, Kao, and now L’Oreal opens up a lot for the industryHeston said. In addition to allowingSurfactants are widely made from nothing other than fossil fuels…What this means for brands is that they can now take a large portion of their ingredients and supply chain base and give consumers more of what they’ve been asking for for the past several years: transparency.. ”
Going forward, Huston said,The joint venture (with Unilever, Kao, and now L’Oreal) is a $120 million backing of biotechnology as a vehicle for innovation in the home care and personal care industries.. The investment is tangible evidence of the commitment of the major players in the industry to the platforms dedicated to the search for significant innovations in the category of renewable and sustainable ingredients.
“Like all technologiesAnd he added, “The evolution of an innovation is a curve in which it starts as an idea and becomes increasingly faster in development and thus more accessible to more applications and markets. Regarding future developments, Heston concluded:We are certainly at an inflection point with biotechnology where it could disrupt the very large and well-established surfactants market.. “