L’Oréal Buys Stake in Water-Saving Solutions Firm

Executives at every multinational on the planet understand the importance of water conservation, but not every company is investing in it. L'Oréal has purchased a share of Gjosa, a Swiss environmental tech start-up that develops water-saving solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the world’s largest beauty company said that it had made the investment through its corporate venture capital fund, called Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development.

“By combining Gjosa’s unique water-tech innovations with L’Oréal’s knowledge of beauty rituals, data, tech and personalization, we will invent together new augmented beauty experiences for our consumers, while protecting the coveted and precious resource that is water,” said Barbara Lavernos, chief research, innovation and technology officer at L’Oréal, in a statement.

L’Oréal and Gjosa, which is based in Bienne, Switzerland, have worked together for the past six years to optimize shampoo rinse technology in order to save water. In 2018, the two companies revealed they had developed a shower head that can rinse shampoo with 1.5 liters of water, rather than the typical 8 liters. Earlier this year, at the annual tech trade show CES, L’Oréal and Gjosa presented the L’Oréal Water Saver, a sustainable hair care system for use in salons and homes.

“We are thrilled to enter this new stage of partnership with L’Oréal. Their leadership in beauty R&D, 'Beauty Tech,' and their iconic brands, will enhance our roadmap in water-technologies to reach consumers all around the world,” said Amin Abdulla and Luc Amgwerd, co-founders of Gjosa. “This strengthening of our partnership will enable us to create innovations that will have the best water-tech solutions for people in salons and at-home with the highest quality, and we are elated to work together to reach this goal.”