Latvian firm Alternative Plants turns plant cells and algae into cosmetic ingredients
Latvian biotechnology company Alternative Plants has developed natural-origin active ingredients for the cosmetics industry since 2017. It has grown from four to 11 staff and used the Latvian investment agency's innovation voucher support.
Alternative Plants, a Latvian biotechnology company, has been creating natural-origin active ingredients for the cosmetics industry since 2017 and sells them through foreign distributors. It started with four people and now employs 11. To speed up development and prove the effectiveness of its products, it has repeatedly used innovation voucher support from the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA).
An ingredient, not a finished product
The company does not make creams or serums for shops. Its product is an ingredient that cosmetics makers add to their own products. It must therefore first convince ingredient distributors and manufacturers that a substance is both technologically usable and effective. Before founding the firm, its founders already had experience in biology, microbiology and biotechnology, working with developers of cosmetics, medical devices and dietary supplements.
Three production platforms
In its first five years the company focused mainly on plant cell cultivation: plant cells are grown in a laboratory and conditions are sought in which they produce the desired substances. It now uses three platforms: plant cell cultures, ingredients derived from algae, and biorefining, in which valuable compounds are sought in food industry by-products.
Plants are chosen in two ways: by analysing scientific literature and patent databases, or by starting from what the cosmetics industry demands. In the company's experience, northern flora holds a lot of undiscovered potential. Developing a cell culture can take six to nine months, or two years and more.
Evidence and markets
The company supplies an ingredient together with a data package on its chemical composition and effects in tests. For its latest development, a multifunctional active ingredient, it used a LIAA voucher, which helps cover part of external costs. Distributors are mentioned in Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, Poland, the US and Canada. A co-founder names scaling up as the hardest stage, since a process proven in the laboratory cannot simply be multiplied ten or a hundred times.
