On September 22, L’Oréal announced a minority investment in ShineHigh Innovation, an innovative Chinese biotech company, to establish a long-term partnership to develop novel and sustainable beauty solutions. The exact amount and details of the investment were not disclosed.
It is worth noting that this is the first open innovation investment made by L’Oréal in China through its Shanghai Meicifang Investment Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Meicifang), which is backed by BOLD, L’Oréal’s strategic innovation venture capital fund. This is also the first investment project incubated by “BIG BANG Beauty Technology Creation Camp” (hereinafter referred to as “BIG BANG”) launched by L’ORÉAL in China four years ago, which proves its success in China’s open innovation ecosystem.
It is reported that ShineHigh Innovation was founded by Prof. Zhang Jiaheng of Harbin Institute of Technology in 2017, focusing on the development and application of cutting-edge supramolecular chemistry, and has a personal care efficacy raw material brand “Xuanjia” under its banner. Its breakthrough intelligent self-assembly technology makes previously unattainable combinations of raw materials possible, resulting in higher efficacy and ecologically sustainable end-use beauty products.
According to the announcement, the collaboration will enable L’Oréal to unlock the full potential of its raw materials, overcoming known limitations such as incompatibility, instability and difficulty in delivering actives, to develop innovative product formulations with a wider range of benefits for the skin, hair and scalp.
“We have long-term confidence in the Chinese market,” said Mr. Fabrice Megarbane, President ofNorth Asia Zone & CEO L’Oréal China. After 25 years of development, China has become the cradle of inspiration for the Group’s future innovations. With a strong belief in co-creation, we launched the BIG BANG program four years ago and last year set up the L’Oreal China investment company, Micifang. I am very excited to see these efforts pay off today: this investment in ShineHigh Innovation is our winning company for BIG BANG 2022.”
Jiaheng Zhang, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ShineHigh Innovation, said, “I am very excited to partner with L’Oreal Group, a global leader in the beauty industry. We have already conducted research together on the supramolecular development of a wide range of active ingredients in the areas of skin care, color cosmetics, hair care and hair color. This is of great significance for the industrialization and landing of cutting-edge supramolecular technologies. We look forward to jointly exploring more possibilities in raw material development, application and global market development!”
