Debut, a cosmetics biotechnology company, has raised $20 million. Its stated aim is to use artificial intelligence to make progress in the discovery of new-generation ingredients targeting the 14 distinctive signs of ageing.
"Debut strives to stay at the forefront of skincare innovation and bring cutting-edge biotechnology to all beauty brands through highly performing and differentiated ingredients. This funding will strengthen our ability to sift through over 50 billion ingredients to explore the 99.999 % of unknown molecules that can optimize skin health and make skin longevity a reality."said Joshua Britton, PhD, founder and CEO of Debut.
According to the company, the predictive capabilities of Debut's proprietary skin health datasets have recently surpassed those of publicly available datasets, achieving a data consistency of 99 % versus 85 % for public datasets. "This means we can predict better ingredients, faster, thanks to our state-of-the-art models in which we've been investing for several years. We're delighted to be embarking on the search for new chemical entities (NCEs), rather than settling for existing ingredients in nature, in order to pioneer innovation in skin health and support the growth of beauty brands." said Joshua Britton.
Debut's fund-raising comes at a time of heightened investor caution. The company is ready to penetrate the Asian market, driven by advanced formulations and high-performance skin care products. "AI, combined with an understanding of skin biology, makes it possible to create customized formulation solutions for different geographical areas, which was previously impossible."said the company's founder. Debut's expansion in Asia will begin in Singapore, where the company is due to partner with leading brands.
The latest round was backed by Fine Structure Ventures, EDBI, Wealthberry, Bold (L'Oréal's venture capital fund), GS Futures, Sandbox Industries and Material Impact, among others.
Image: © Mark Wall, Debut
