L’Oréal and Microphyt: Blue biotech for greener beauty

What’s invisible to the naked eye and transforming the way we formulate cosmetics? It’s microalgae, the photosynthetic micro-organisms that are powering the work at Microphyt, the French biotech startup and one of BOLD’s portfolio companies.

In 2022, BOLD made a minority investment in Microphyt, putting into motion an exclusive agreement to establish the Extended Lab. It’s in this space that a dedicated team consisting of L’Oréal experts and Microphyt innovators set the roadmap and tap into the startup’s disruptive tech.

With close to one million estimated species, microalgae are an extensive source of bioactives and functional ingredients. But despite their potential, the space has been largely unexplored—until now. Microphyt is using its patented technology to tap into this rich resource to develop eco-friendly, natural ingredients for a variety of industries, including beauty.

BLUE BIOTECH FOR THE WIN

Win-win—that’s how Dr. Saliou Ngom, L’Oréal R&I Advanced Research, Senior Principal Innovation Officer, Platform Leader, New Biotechnology Territories, describes the partnership between Microphyt and L’Oréal. This spirit lives on in the Extended Lab, a shared platform dedicated to pooling together the manpower and material resources to co-develop new categories of ingredients.

The Extended Lab leans into the expertise of L’Oréal’s Research & Innovation (R&I) global value chain, notably from the Advanced Research arm and the R&D ingredients’ development teams, among others. Working together, L’Oréal and the startup use their knowledge and breakthrough technologies to co-create effective beauty ingredients at scale.

“This collaboration enables L’Oréal to explore the emerging territory of blue biotech,” Saliou says. “But furthermore, it contributes to and enhances both the sustainability and performance profile of ingredients and final products—at scale and cost effectively. This means we’re reducing our reliance on traditional, less sustainable ingredients and moving towards our 2030 aim of having 95% biobased ingredients in our formulas, derived from abundant materials or from circular processes.”

SETTING THE ROADMAP

The partnership kicked off in 2023 with two strategic projects. The first, the “New generation of bioactives”, and the second, “Microalgae oils for functional performances.” In other words, these two projects aim to use Microphyt and L’Oréal strengths to develop short- and mid-term solutions for skincare and scalp care.

First things first, integration between the two teams commenced, consisting of visits, conferences, and workshops between L’Oréal and Microphyt. Through these collaborative sessions, the two defined their strategic roadmap so they could get to work.

Already, though, Microphyt is making encouraging progress in the partnership. By using its already existing technologies, the startup wrapped up the first phase of the development of optimized biological active candidates. This means that the teams are already underway in improving and enhancing the building blocks of ingredients, including molecules and compounds, to be put to work in products.

Moreover, over the summer, the first set of samples came in and L’Oréal and Microphyt are analyzing their performance. Following this analysis, the teams will be able to identify, select and consolidate the high-performing candidates—aka the molecules and compounds that make up ingredients.

PARTNERSHIP FOR THE LONG-TERM

While “win-win” is one way to describe the partnership, so is “ambitious.” Given the incredible opportunities that microalgae present, the team has to be selective and determine the most effective ways to reach results. This means the  startup and the Group have already identified the top categories of ingredients to develop.

These exciting initiatives span co-working on breakthrough technologies and concepts to imagining alternatives to petrochemical functional green ingredients.

Though microalgae may not be visible, the results most definitely are. The Extended Lab is buzzing with excitement to scale blue biotech for a green future.