Amyris acquisitions continue with color cosmetics brand EcoFabulous

15-Apr-2021 - Last updated on 15-Apr-2021 at 15:06 GMT

$© Getty Images \ (Martin Barraud)$

Today, the biotech company announced plans to add a 7th clean consumer brand to its portfolio. This just one day after the ingredient maker publicized a deal to acquire a tech company called Beauty Labs International.

Amyris is first and foremost a synthetic biology company, making ingredients that can replace petrochemical based input in beauty products and health and wellness products as well as (until recently) ingredients for the flavors and fragrances industry.

Amyris is building and buying consumer brands

The company may be best known in beauty for its biotech squalane and the consumer brand that made that ingredient popular, Biossance.

But Amyris also owns Biossance, Pipette, Rose Inc., JVN, Terasana, and Costa Brazil. And the company has now announced executing a binding term sheet to acquire 70% stake in the color cosmetics brand launched and led by Marissa Shipman.

“I am passionate about building beauty products that deliver real performance for the beauty consumer and make no compromise with respect to clean ingredients and packaging because there is no planet B,” Shipman tells the press.

“EcoFabulous is my latest brand innovation and I am looking forward to partnering with the Amyris team to accelerate our growth,” she says in the media release posted online today. “I see an exciting future leveraging the opportunities that Amyris's depth in sustainable ingredients brings to our brand.”

John Melo, President and CEO of Amyris, explains the company’s decision to buy into EcoFabulous saying, “We are very excited to be adding a Gen Z-focused offering to our portfolio. Marissa's track record of beauty brand innovation speaks for itself and she has done an incredible job building a well-positioned cosmetics brand in EcoFabulous.”

And he speaks to Amyris’ larger strategy regarding consumer brand acquisitions saying, “We have invested approximately $12 million in acquiring and developing new brands this year, mostly funded with Amyris equity. The new brands are estimated to represent 20% of consumer revenue this year. Our direct-to-consumer sales continues to experience excellent growth and we are now experiencing better than pre-COVID sales growth with our retail store partners.”

Amyris buys into beauty tech with Beauty Labs acquisition

Just yesterday the biotech company announced signing an agreement to acquire the AI tech company Beauty Labs. According to a press release about the Beauty Labs transaction, the deal will likely be final by this time next month. And, “[the] Amyris brands will utilize Beauty Labs' leading edge AI technology to create compelling, personalized, connected consumer experiences and further accelerate the growth of Amyris's ecommerce revenue.”