Debut, a San Diego, CA-based vertically integrated synthetic biology company creating active ingredients in beauty, raised $34M in Series B funding.
The round was led by BOLD with participation from Fine Structure Ventures, Material Impact, GS Futures, Cavallo Ventures, Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, ACVC Partners, and others.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach.
Led by CEO Founder and CEO Joshua Britton, Ph.D., Debut is a vertically integrated synthetic biology company that creates innovative and novel high-performing active ingredients in beauty. With biotechnology, its team of expert scientists and brand specialists work to develop novel bioactive skincare ingredients and products at speed through a scalable creation model.
As part of the strategic partnership with L’Oréal’s venture capital fund BOLD, Debut will develop a wide variety of novel ingredients and beauty and personal care products using its proprietary cell-free and biotechnology model, with a view to accelerating the commercialization of this technology across the entire beauty industry. The company has full vertical integration capabilities incorporating ingredient discovery, finished clinically-backed scalable ingredients and brands on shelf.
Debut’s proprietary Bio2Consumer™ platform spans ingredient discovery, cell-free, biofermentation, formulation, clinical trials and brand creation. The platform utilizes cell-free and advanced fermentation approaches such as continuous biomanufacturing to overcome the limitations of traditional methods, reducing the need for space, water, and expensive and unsustainable inputs. In addition to producing rare, novel compounds, the technology also improves traditional ingredient manufacturing. The platform comprises a proprietary database of over 3.8 million pre-clinical data points to find and discover new ingredients that address beauty consumer needs.