With skincare launch, a biotech startup raises the bar for clean beauty

The Activated Silk technology has a small but growing commercial presence. It’s featured in activewear brand Gentrue’s products to eliminate the need for petroleum-based finishing chemicals, and leather and textile suppliers are using it to replace a range of harmful substances, from PFAS in leather production to polyurethane in fabrics.

Evolved By Nature lost some of its momentum during the pandemic, when a number of developing partnerships or conversations about investment were put on ice, but it’s now regaining its footing as industries, from medicine to beauty, face growing pressure to both phase out fossil fuels and offer cleaner ingredients and products. A fresh round of funding helps, with $120 million in Series C announced in June and led by Teachers’ Venture Growth, and the company is using the renewed drive to expand its reach not only in fashion but to venture into other industries, including beauty, with the same goal in each of eliminating the use of petroleum-based chemicals that are often hazardous to both people’s health and to the environment.

That’s a message that is likely to resonate, in part because environmental sustainability is increasingly important to skincare and beauty consumers, Gen Z in particular, says Larissa Jensen, beauty industry advisor at market research firm NPD Group. “Any brand that continues to innovate and find new ways of bringing efficacious products to the consumer is putting themselves in a position to win,” she says — although she’s also clear that’s no guarantee, and branding and name recognition also matter. “The market is extremely saturated, and there’s more to the success of a brand than the ingredient.”

The inundation of products labelled as “clean” is responsible for much of that market crowding — as well as for people losing faith in the term itself, the more widely and indiscriminately it gets used. However, as consumers grow more discerning, opportunities could open up for brands raising the bar on what clean beauty can and should mean. Many brands have focused on changing packaging, making it reusable or recyclable, but ingredients are in need of innovation. Evolved By Nature’s goal is to eliminate the need for chemicals that are both derived from fossil fuels, which has climate implications, and that are hazardous to the health of consumers as well as workers. And, the beauty market has a history of embracing shiny new hero ingredients with open arms.