L Catterton backs beauty industry biotech supplier
L Catterton has led a CNY 200m (USD 27m) Series B round for Trautec, a China-based biotech start-up that develops synthetic proteins used in beauty and healthcare products.
The consumer-focused private equity firm is investing via its debut renminbi fund, which is targeting CNY 2bn and hit a first close last year, reportedly collecting CNY 1bn. The fund backed a CNY 300m round for electric bicycle maker Tenways earlier this year.
L Catterton, which has significant experience in patient-facing healthcare businesses, began exploring downstream opportunities in 2021 when it invested about USD 182m in Japan’s PHC, a medical devices division of Panasonic.
Regional investments in beauty have included Ci Flavors and Etvos in Japan, Dr. Wu in Taiwan, Clio Cosmetics in Korea, Marubi in China, and Social Bella in Indonesia. Last year, L Catterton entered India’s beauty and personal care space, leading a USD 50m round for Sugar Cosmetics.
Trautec is considered a leader in China’s synthetic recombinant human collagen (SRHC) industry. This refers to an emerging biotech field whereby collagens – essential proteins in tissue, bone, and skin health – are synthesized without using animal or plant-derived ingredients. It is said to be more scalable and environmentally sound than collagen production processes using animals and plants.
The market for products incorporating SRHC is expected to grow 34% a year in China and 30% globally to reach CNY 82bn and USD 186bn, respectively, in 2028, L Catterton said in a statement. The growth is said to be driven by consumers' increasing preferences for beauty and healthcare products with functional benefits as well as rising acceptance of synthetic proteins.
“Trautec has demonstrated that it is able to develop technologies that are at the forefront of the SRHC industry and also commercialize them for practical use in products that consumers value,” Scott Chen, an Asia-based managing partner at L Catterton.
“Impressively, it has done so in a balanced and prudent manner, quintupling revenue and growing profit over the past two years even as it continued investing in research and development to stay ahead of the curve.”
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