5 Years In: Covalo Secures €3.5M to Build the Data Backbone of Personal Care

Innovation within the beauty and personal care industry depends heavily on data. But today, that data is still highly fragmented.

A single product – like a facial cream – can involve dozens of raw materials, each with extensive documentation covering safety, regulatory compliance, sustainability, and technical specifications. These documents come in different formats, structures, and naming conventions, making them difficult to connect and reuse.

The result is that teams across R&D, regulatory, and procurement spend a significant portion of their time manually collecting, updating, and processing data – slowing down innovation and increasing complexity.

At the same time, the pressure on the industry is rapidly intensifying. New regulations such as the EU Green Deal and microplastics ban, increasing sustainability requirements, ongoing supply chain disruptions, and fast-changing consumer expectations are all accelerating the pace of change.

"On average, it takes 3-5 years to bring a product to market. At the end of this process, 50% of product launches fail, costing the industry hundreds of billions every year. Much of this inefficiency stems from how information is managed and shared throughout the product lifecycle; product data is the one data that flows across the entire process. The problem is that this process is highly fragmented and inefficient on an industry level. Many companies are trying to find internal solutions to address these challenges, but what they truly need is one common data backbone that powers the industry and allows for seamless data flows across teams and partners. Covalo is that backbone."

— Yann Chilvers, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Covalo

By 2030, an estimated 80% of products will require reformulation – further increasing the volume and complexity of ingredient data companies need to manage. This makes one thing clear: the current way of managing data is no longer sustainable. Without a shared, structured foundation, adopting AI and advanced digital workflows at scale becomes nearly impossible.

From marketplace to data infrastructure

To solve this problem, Covalo is evolving beyond ingredient discovery. The platform is becoming a central data infrastructure – the backbone of the industry – which connects directly into:

• Suppliers' product information management (PIM) systems; 
• Brands' R&D and PLM workflows.

This replaces the emails, PDFs, and spreadsheets that still dominate how data moves across the industry.

"Five years ago, we built the world's largest ingredient discovery platform. What we've learned is that discovery is just the beginning – what the industry needs is a shared system of record where ingredient data is structured once, governed once, and reused everywhere. Our largest customers are expanding their use of the platform two- to three-fold year over year, not because we're selling harder, but because once data is structured on Covalo, teams across R&D, regulatory, and procurement all want access. That compounding effect is something no standalone tool can replicate."

— Timo von Bargen, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Covalo

What's next: Scaling the data platform and AI capabilities

This new funding extension will enable Covalo to to scale its enterprise offering in key markets, launch new industry-specific AI-agents – including conversation analytics, RFI/RFP workflow automation, data extraction and enrichment, and regulatory compliance checks – and deepen its data platform with full product information management (PIM) and master data management (MDM) capabilities. The company is committed to anchor its leadership into Personal Care ahead of a future expansion into adjacent segments.

The company’s mission is clear: to make the personal care industry’s data connected, accessible, and future-ready.

Building the foundation for the future of the industry

Covalo's ambition goes beyond solving today's inefficiencies. It is about enabling an entire industry to work more connected, more efficient, more data-driven, and ready for what comes next. As the volume, complexity, and importance of data continue to grow, having a shared, structured foundation will become essential. 

Covalo is building that foundation.

Explore Covalo
Want to see how Covalo can help your team structure, manage, and exchange ingredient data more efficiently? Visit: www.covalo.com

In modern cosmetic formulation, one of the key challenges is navigating fragmented ingredient data — ranging from regulatory requirements and safety documentation to performance and sustainability claims — across multiple suppliers and formats. This complexity makes it difficult for R&D and regulatory teams to efficiently compare options, validate compliance, and make informed formulation decisions. As the industry moves toward more data-driven and AI-supported workflows, having access to structured, standardized, and up-to-date ingredient information becomes increasingly critical. Covalo provides a centralized and comprehensive resource for discovering ingredients and formulations, helping teams streamline evaluation processes and improve decision-making.