Apoena Biotech readies brand new portfolio of ingredients

08 Jul 2021 --- Brazil-based Apoena Biotech has just unveiled its ambitions to branch out from its agricultural-facing biotech business to embrace biotechnology ingredients for beauty and personal care products.

The company has big ambitions for its new business, which is already positioning itself as the first ever business in Brazil to manufacture biotechnology derived ingredients for beauty and personal care applications.

Although the business has only just been launched, the aim is to make it a major player in this fast-growing segment of the industry for the Latin American market and worldwide. 

BPC Insights caught up with Bruno Carillo, managing director of Apoena Biotech, to find out more about the company’s ingredients portfolio, specifically what area of the market it will target, the type of beauty brands the company will supply and what the ambitions are for the future of the portfolio. 

The ingredient portfolio

Click to EnlargeThe company is starting off with a multifunctional ingredient that will be a co-surfactant and anti-inflammatory.The company is starting off by targeting a specific niche area of the beauty and personal care industry, in the hopes of building up a larger and more scaled business from that. 

“As we are going to launch the products and they are in their final testing stages, we will know exactly what the portfolio will consist of closer to the time,” explained Carillo.

“We are focusing on a co-surfactant derived from a microorganism which is quite innovative. It has a surfactant function and, at the same time, can act as an anti-inflammatory. In a certain, sense we can say that beyond being a surfactant it will also be anti-aging. We are still in the process of conducting the efficacy tests and will soon be able to confirm a number of other functions, one of which is a post-biotic.”

Skin care comes first

Biotechnology ingredients have been developed to target a broad range of beauty industry categories, but skin care has certainly proved to be the most popular application. In line with this, the Apoena team believes that the focus of its ingredient technology will also be for skin care, before expanding into other categories. 

“We have targeted the skin care market first, and then we will move to hair care. Amongst other applications, the first new ingredient we are launching could be used as a mild skin cleanser,” said Carillo. 

“As a secondary function it could also be used for anti-aging applications, nevertheless, if it will perform in both areas with the same intensity, which will all be determined once our tests are concluded.” 

Targeting major brands

Click to EnlargeThe company wants to target a broad selection of beauty and personal care brands, including some of the biggest multinational players, but believes that ultimately the criteria will boil down to the all-important issues of sustainability and efficacy. 

“We want to target every type of beauty and personal care brand,” says Carillo. “We want to reach the whole market, from the small players to the big ones. This will include brands that are defining environmental, social and governance criteria as well as those that already have more defined sustainability development goals, delivering value-added sustainable ingredients with proven efficacy.”

Looking to the future, the company believes that the evolution of its ingredient portfolio will be defined by its vision, and the fact that biotechnology spells out a more effective and sustainable future for product formulation.

“Sustainability and efficacity are the two words that drive our vision and we believe that biotechnology is the key to achieving this goal. We foresee that one of the challenges in biotech will be to increase production to meet higher demand. However, we know and accept this challenge, but we will take a conservative approach, growing our business with responsibility and the pursuit of sustainability as a core value,” said Carillo.

“We hope the market recognizes our value proposition as we grow our business globally and gradually increase our footprint in these new markets.”

By Simon Pitman, BPC Insights Senior Editor