L’Oréal partners with Microphyt to develop cosmetics solutions from microalgae

January 15, 2023 | Case Study

Microphyt is a French developer of microalgae-derived nutraceuticals and cosmetic ingredients. The company claims to have a scalable manufacturing process, called CAMARGUE, that involves twenty 5,000-L photobioreactors (PBRs) for efficient proliferation of a variety of microalgae strains. Microphyt raised a EUR 15 million Series B funding round in November 2022 led by L’Oréal’s venture capital fund, Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development (BOLD), and joined by existing investors Bpifrance, IRDI, IXO-Private Equity, Sofilaro, Sofinnova Partners, and Supernova Partners. In addition to the investment, Microphyt and L’Oréal — the world's largest cosmetics company — announced a partnership in which L’Oréal’s BOLD acquired a minority stake in Microphyt. The partnership seeks to develop a technology platform for algae-derived ingredients along with new cosmetic solutions from microalgae biomass.