L'Oreal Acquires Biotech Company for First Time, Targeting Postbiotics

On December 5, L'Oreal Group announced that it had completed its acquisition of Lactobio.

In the announcement, Anne Colonna, global senior director of research at L'Oréal Group, said: "The integration of Lactobio and L'Oréal in the field of high-end research is highly complementary. By joining forces, our goal is to develop a new generation of cosmetics that leverages cutting-edge innovation in the formulation process to deliver science-based, precision probiotic and postbiotic products with new levels of performance. "

This is the first time L'Oréal Group has acquired an upstream biotechnology company.

In fact, before this, L'Oreal has completed three investments in the biotechnology field in 2023.

In March, L'Oreal and two international beauty giants, Unilever and Kao, jointly invested in a sustainable raw material joint venture led by biotechnology company Geno to use microbial technology to develop new plant-based ingredients as alternatives to traditional ingredients.

In June, L 'Oreal, through its venture capital fund BOLD, raised $340,000 in a Series B round of funding for Debut Biotech, a synthesis startup that aims to use its proprietary Bio2Consumer platform to develop new products with a sustainable philosophy that utilizes both cell-free advanced biological fermentation methods.

In September, L'Oréal made a minority investment in Shanhai Innovation, an innovative Chinese biotechnology company, through the investment company Meizifang established in China, aiming to use its supramolecular smart assembly technology to break the application limitations of crude oil formulations.

Earlier in December last year, L'Oréal also acquired a minority stake in Microphyt, a French biotechnology company focusing on the research of natural active ingredients from microalgae.

Founded in Copenhaben in 2017 by Soren Kjörulff and Charlotte Vedel, Lactobio focuses on the study of skin, gut and other microbiota to create new microbial tissues and microbial solutions to target pathologies such as acne and eczema.

It can be said that there are many companies studying microecology in various fields, but Lactobio has different research ideas from other companies, and this also determines Lactobio's absolute differentiation advantage in this field.

Lactobio believes in the science of the gut-skin axis: gut health and skin health are closely linked. The founder of Lactobio once stated in an interview that immune system regulation is a mechanism, and the intestine plays an important role in training and regulating the immune system. "The gut is responsible for absorbing nutrients from the diet, and if the gut malfunctions, deficiencies in certain nutrients can affect skin health. For example, deficiencies in vitamins, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids can affect skin conditions such as dryness, acne, and dermatitis. "

Compared with other traditional research that focuses on probiotics and prebiotics, Lactobio is more interested in the research point of postbiotics, which is also its main differentiated research strategy.

Probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics are the three core directions of microecological skin care. These three directions are more like an inner loop that is mutually reinforcing.

Among them, probiotics emphasize the effect of live bacteria, mainly to improve the immunity of the skin and body. Prebiotics work by selectively stimulating the reproduction and metabolism of one or a limited number of microorganisms in the microbiome, prompting probiotics to produce metabolites and micronutrients that may be beneficial.

Compared with the first two live bacteria, "postbiotics" are metabolites of probiotics or a class of compounds released by probiotics that have direct or indirect effects on the host.

Probiotics pyrolysis can produce hyaluronic acid, lipoteichoic acid, extracellular polysaccharide, peptidoglycan, lactic acid and other bioactive substances, so in addition to the body's immune regulation, antioxidant properties, but also improve atopic dermatitis, scars, light damage and other skin problems.

But there's another important reason Lactobio is choosing postbiotics as a research focus: Probiotics are live microbes that struggle to maintain stability, while postbiotics as a "dead bacterium" doesn't have that problem. It has the unique advantages of high safety (inactivated bacteria), fast functioning (quick effect), stronger stability (easy preservation), and more flexible usage (convenient application).