L'Oréal's BOLD fund leads investment in Chinese AI biotech PAM2L

L'Oréal has made a minority investment in PAM2L Biotechnologies, an artificial-intelligence-native biomaterials research and application company in China. The deal was made through Shanghai Meicifang Investment Co, with support from the French group's strategic corporate venture fund BOLD, Business Opportunities for L'Oréal Development.

Of the several brands that led the funding round, L'Oréal was joined by Walgreens Boots Alliance, the pharmaceutical and healthcare conglomerate Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group and capital investor Guangxin Group. The round in question backed Shenzhen Boyin Biotechnology, the company behind the PAM2 start-up.

The French group said it will use its beauty and formulation expertise to explore the wider scientific value of innovative bio-actives, including a molecule called Augmented Colanic Acid. That ingredient is already incorporated into L'Oréal Paris' Age Perfect Collagen Royal Series, a sign the partnership has moved beyond research.

Barbara Lavernos, deputy chief executive of L'Oréal Groupe in charge of research, innovation and technology, framed the stake as a decisive new chapter in the group's commitment to China's AI-enabled biotechnology ecosystem. She said PAM2L's pioneering biotech and AI expertise would join L'Oréal's 116 years of scientific mastery.

The collaboration, she added, will accelerate the development of high-performing bio-based ingredients, specifically within what she called the promising frontier of longevity. The two companies are co-designing the next generation of beauty breakthroughs to enhance consumers' lives worldwide, Lavernos said.

How the partnership began

PAM2L was a winner of L'Oréal's Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program in 2024, which is where the two organisations first connected. Vincent Boinay, president of L'Oréal North Asia Zone and chief executive of L'Oréal China, said the group first met PAM2L through that competition.

Boinay said the company firmly believes in the innovation potential of the Chinese market and called the minority stake a concrete step in the group's long-term dedication to growing hand-in-hand with China's open innovation landscape. He said L'Oréal was impressed by PAM2L's capabilities in systematically developing innovative biomolecules.

PAM2L was founded in 2021 by Dr Zhong Chao, a researcher from the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Chao is the company's founder and chief scientist, and the firm combines high-throughput synthetic biology with AI to develop next-generation biomaterials with novel functionalities.

Chao described L'Oréal as a global leader in beauty technology with 116 years of scientific excellence, and said partnering with it will accelerate PAM2L's path from lab to market. The collaboration, he said, will bring biomaterials innovation to the global beauty and health industries and shape new possibilities in the era of longevity.

The investment deepens a China strategy that L'Oréal has been vocal about. Our briefing on the group's third quarter noted L'Oréal grew 7.7% in the period, led by dermatological and professional beauty, with skincare returning after a weak 2025.

Longevity is a theme our previous coverage of L'Oréal has tracked closely. We reported that its chief executive called GLP-1 weight-loss drugs very important for skin care sales, saying SkinCeuticals and Kiehl's already sell products built around them, with dermatological beauty growing 11.6% in the third quarter.

The PAM2L bet is squarely inside that arc: a biotech and AI platform aimed at bioactive ingredients for the longevity segment, feeding directly into the premium skincare lines L'Oréal Luxe houses. The investment is corporate venture at the ingredient stage, one step removed from finished products.

This is not the group's only push into sustainability and formulation innovation in China and beyond. Our coverage noted L'Oréal Travel Retail and Avolta have signed a joint sustainability plan targeting 10% refillable fragrance by 2030, backed by low-emission transport and CSR training for beauty advisors.

The deal terms were not disclosed: L'Oréal has not said how large the stake is, what the round was worth, or what the other investors put in. The use of Shanghai Meicifang Investment as the vehicle suggests a structure designed for China-market operations rather than a straight global corporate investment.

What L'Oréal gains is access to a platform method for discovering new biomolecules, rather than a single ingredient. The Augmented Colanic Acid already in the Age Perfect range shows how quickly a Big Bang winner can move into commercial product, and the group is betting the pipeline holds more.

For PAM2L, the partnership gives it a route to a global beauty leader's formulation teams and distribution, alongside the credibility of a household-name investor. Chao's language about the era of longevity aligns neatly with L'Oréal's own public framing of where beauty science is heading.

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Image: L'Oréal