Debut, a pioneering synthetic biology company, announced that it has successfully raised an additional Series B round of funding of more than $40 million, led by BOLD, L’Oréal’s venture capital fund. The financing will be used for programs to develop bioidentical and novel flavor molecules.
The funds secured in this round will be instrumental in propelling Debut’s biotech fragrance model to the forefront of the fragrance industry. Leveraging its proprietary biomanufacturing platform, Debut aims to establish itself as the benchmark for bio-based formulas in the fragrance category. By harnessing the power of advanced biotechnology, Debut can address the pressing challenges faced by the fragrance industry.
Joshua Britton, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of Debut, expressed his confidence in the company’s ability to tackle these challenges. Having already achieved remarkable success in scaling biotechnology within the skincare sector, Debut is now prepared to address the urgent needs of the fragrance industry. Britton emphasized that Debut’s advanced biomanufacturing processes are uniquely positioned to reconcile the consumer demand for naturalness with the unsustainable strain on the Earth’s limited natural resources.
In June this year, L’Oréal announced its minority investment in Debut. At the time, L’Oréal’s deputy chief executive officer in charge of research, innovation and technology Barbara Lavernos said Debut “addresses one of the beauty world’s fundamental challenges, which is driving limitless, open innovation without the resource intensity and environmental impact that comes with relying on traditional manufacturing alone.”
