June 2023

PARIS — L’Oréal is preparing to take green chemistry to the following level. The world’s biggest beauty player, via its Daring enterprise capital fund, has taken a minority stake in U.S.-based biotech start-up Debut, which focuses on “cell-free” ingredient manufacturing. The sweetness giant led a $34 million round of series B funding within the San Diego-based firm. L’Oréal sees the nascent technology – through which recent, naturally derived lively ingredients will be reproduced, at scale, within the lab — as being key to helping the firm reach its sustainability goals, notably around renewable raw materials, which the group has pledged will account for 95 percent of the ingredients in its formulas by 2030. In response to L’Oréal’s deputy chief executive officer answerable for research,...