Evolva partners with Ajinomoto to develop personal care applications

Swiss-based ingredients company Evolva has teamed up with the Japan-based amino acids supplier Ajinomoto to develop novel fermentation production routes in creating natural ingredients for application in personal care products.

As part of the deal, both the firms will jointly work for three years, in which Ajinomoto will fund research and development activities at Evolva.

Ajinomoto’s investment will primarily focus on building a pathway with Evolva’s fermentation technology, further improving production yield through the scale-up and manufacturing phases.

Seven full-time scientists at Evolva are expected to work on the programme, and Evolva is also set to receive milestone payments upon achieving certain goals in terms of yield, productivity and production costs.

The total fees and milestone payments to Evolva during the collaboration will amount to more than CHF10m ($10.69m) and in case of commercialisation, Evolva will also receive royalty as a percentage on product sold.

Evolva CEO Neil Goldsmith commented on the collaboration "We look forward to providing Ajinomoto Co with efficient production routes for their important product. For Evolva, this project has long-term benefits as it allows us to build a pathway which can be important for other products."