Having closed a complete of $40 million in its series B funding led by Daring, L’Oréal’s enterprise capital fund, biotech firm Debut desires to make the fragrance industry more sustainable.

“Having successfully scaled biotechnology with 100% success in skincare and leading that category, we are actually addressing the urgent challenges facing the fragrance industry,” said Debut founder and chief executive officer Joshua Britton. 

By developing bio-identical and novel fragrance molecules, San Diego-based Debut believes it would enable fragrance brands to transition to bio-based formulas, while protecting the olfactive integrity of the formulas. 

That’s because Debut’s biotechnology can replicate the olfactive signature and precise characteristics of natural ingredients, including those which can be structurally complex, difficult to source and only exist in trace amounts in nature.

“Debut’s ability to fabricate natural, protected and sustainable fragrance molecules at the best standards of purity will safeguard the perfumer’s palette and halt the extraction of ingredients from the planet,” said Britton.

“We’re already being approached by firms to create bio-identical molecules for existing fragrances and innovate novel fragrance molecules that may confer olfactive uniqueness to brands,” he added. 

L’Oréal announced its minority investment in Debut in June. On the time, L’Oréal’s deputy chief executive officer accountable for research, innovation and technology Barbara Lavernos said Debut “addresses considered one of the wonder world’s fundamental challenges, which is driving limitless, open innovation without the resource intensity and environmental impact that comes with counting on traditional manufacturing alone.”

Along with its work with other firms, Debut is working by itself brand, too.