Debut, a leader in biotech beauty, has secured $20 million in investment to expedite the development of its proprietary, AI-powered ingredient discovery platform, aiming to advance innovations in skin longevity and expand its formulation business across the United States and Asia.
This funding will facilitate the discovery of next-generation ingredients targeting the 14 hallmarks of aging, enabling Debut’s global beauty partners to innovate with high-performing biotech ingredients and formulations paired with novel claims. Additionally, it will allow beauty brands at all growth stages to outsource their formulation innovation swiftly, at scale, and without the substantial upfront R&D expenses typically associated with biotech.
Debut’s proprietary in-house skin health datasets, which possess predictive capabilities, recently outperformed publicly available datasets, achieving a 99 percent data consistency compared to 85 percent in public datasets.
The fundraising occurs amidst heightened investor caution. The company is strategically positioned to penetrate the Asian market, which is characterized by advanced formulations and high-performance skincare.
Debut’s expansion into Asia will commence in Singapore, where the company plans to collaborate with leading brands to develop custom ingredients and formulations for longevity skincare.
The most recent funding round was supported by Fine Structure Ventures, EDBI, Wealthberry, BOLD (L’Oréal’s venture fund), GS Futures, Sandbox Industries, and Material Impact, among others.
KEY QUOTES:
“Debut is laser-focused on staying at the forefront of skincare innovation and bringing cutting-edge biotech to every beauty brand with the highest-performing and most differentiated ingredients. This funding will enhance our ability to screen upward of 50 billion ingredients to explore the 99.999 percent of unknown molecules that can optimize skin health and make skin longevity a reality.”
“We can predict better ingredients, faster, with our best-in-class models that we have invested in over several years. We are excited to go after novel chemical entities (NCEs), as opposed to chasing existing ingredients in nature, to pioneer skin health innovation and support the growth of beauty brands.”
“AI combined with an understanding of skin biology enables the creation of custom formulation solutions for different geographies that has previously not been possible.”
Joshua Britton, PhD, Founder and CEO of Debut
