L’Oréal China issues first investment in Shinehigh Innovation’s “cutting-edge” supramolecular tech

25 Sep 2023 --- L’Oréal’s Shanghai Meicifang Investment will make a minority investment in biotechnology specialist Shinehigh Innovation in China to initiate a long-term partnership for co-developing new and sustainable beauty solutions using supramolecular chemistry, a branch of science studying intermolecular bonds.

Shinehigh Innovation is a start-up born in 2017 by leading scientist professor Jiaheng Zhang, who specializes in supramolecular science.

L’Oréal describes the start-up’s “breakthrough” as a smart self-assembling technology that “enables a combination of ingredients that were previously impossible.” This allows products to have greater efficacy and sustainability, according to the group.

“I am delighted to cooperate with L’Oréal Groupe, a global leader in the beauty industry. We have jointly researched the supramolecular development of multiple active raw materials in the fields of skin care, makeup, hair care and hair coloration,” comments Jiaheng Zhang, founder and CEO at Shinehigh Innovation.

“This is of great significance for the industrialization and landing of cutting-edge supramolecular technology. We look forward to exploring more possibilities in raw material research and development, application, and global market development together.”

The investment is supported by BOLD (Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development), L’Oréal Groupe’s strategic innovation venture capital fund company.L’Oréal expects the partnership will enable it to extract the full potential of raw materials and overcome limitations, such as incompatibility, instability and delivery.

Competition participant to partner
L’Oréal expects the partnership will enable it to extract the full potential of raw materials and overcome limitations, such as incompatibility, instability and delivery.

“The fast-paced and unique ecosystem of start-ups in China is a critical enabler of our future innovation strategy at L’Oréal. This is why we are excited to pursue this new investment and partnership with one of these highly innovative Chinese biotech start-ups: Shinehigh,” says Barbara Lavernos, deputy CEO at L’Oréal Groupe in charge of Research, Innovation and Technology.

“This partnership will enable us, thanks to their world-leading application of supramolecular technology in the beauty industry, to bring breakthrough new performances to the beauty market.”

The investment is also the company’s first from L’Oréal’s Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Challenge, initiated four years ago in China. The competition invited domestic tech start-ups to explore and create revolutionary beauty tech solutions.

“Under our firm belief in co-creation, we initiated Big Bang and founded L’Oréal China’s investment company Meicifang last year. I am thrilled to see our efforts have harvested fruits: investing in Shinehigh Innovation, our 2022 Big Bang winner. Now, Big Bang has been extended to the North Asia Zone, and we expect to invent the future of beauty with more partners for North Asia and the global beauty market,” says Fabrice Megarbane, president of L’Oréal North Asia Zone and CEO at L’Oréal China.

“We have long-term confidence in the Chinese market. After 25 years of development, China has become the Groupe’s inspiration cradle of future innovation.”

Other recent moves by L’Oréal’s BOLD venture capital fund include an investment in synthetic biology platform Debut to scale “breakthrough ingredients” for cosmetics, skin care and packaging. Debut’s proprietary Bio2Consumer platform spans ingredient discovery, cell-free, bio-fermentation, formulation, clinical trials and brand creation.

In its H1 performance, L’Oréal’s Professional Products division experienced a growth of 7.6%, noting a remarkable rise in mainland China, India and the UK. Its Luxe division of high-end fragrance and skin care brands had a positive recovery in mainland China, with record sales and market share in the second quarter.

Edited by Venya Patel

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