Covalo, based in Zurich, has secured an additional €3.5 million in funding.

      The Zurich-based platform, which links over 1,500 ingredient suppliers with 6,000 brands such as Givaudan, Symrise, PUIG, and La Prairie, is transforming from a discovery marketplace into a data backbone that interfaces directly with suppliers’ PIM systems and the R&D processes of brands. This funding round was led by Hi inov.

      Covalo, the platform based in Zurich that connects personal care ingredient suppliers to brands, has obtained a €3.5 million funding extension, led by Hi inov, with existing investors HTGF and seed + speed Ventures reinvesting.

      Founded in 2021 by Yann Chilvers and Timo von Bargen, who are the Co-Founders and Co-CEOs, Covalo has, after five years, connected more than 1,500 suppliers and 6,000 brands in over 145 countries, including clients like Givaudan, Symrise, PUIG, and La Prairie.

      This funding signifies a shift in direction. Initially launched as a marketplace for ingredient discovery—a search engine for formulators to locate raw materials—it has grown into one of the largest platforms of its kind, listing over 80,000 ingredients.

      The new funding round intends to establish a structurally different goal: to create a shared data infrastructure for the entire personal care sector, integrating directly with suppliers’ product information management (PIM) systems and the R&D and product lifecycle management (PLM) processes of brands.

      The aim is to replace the reliance on emails, PDFs, and spreadsheets—still prevalent in the industry—for ingredient data transfer with a single structured layer that can be universally accessed.

      Regulatory pressures and market demands drive the urgency for this initiative. Factors like the EU Green Deal, microplastics regulations, sustainability standards, and rapidly evolving consumer expectations are all shortening reformulation timelines.

      Covalo anticipates that by 2030, around 80% of products will need reformulation, resulting in a significant rise in the volume and complexity of ingredient data that teams must manage.

      Currently, bringing a product to market takes an average of three to five years, with about half of launches ending in failure, according to Covalo. Without a shared, structured data groundwork, scaling AI integration into product development workflows becomes, in the company’s view, “nearly impossible.”

      The focus here is primarily on data quality before AI considerations: the effectiveness of models is inherently tied to the quality of the data they utilize.

      Covalo has been progressing towards this goal for some time. In October 2024, it revealed a partnership with Trace One, the global PLM and compliance platform, incorporating Covalo’s ingredient database directly into Trace One’s product development workflows.

      The €3.5 million extension will support the next stage: expanding that data platform, enhancing integrations, and developing the AI capabilities that will operate on a structured, industry-wide data foundation. According to the company, their largest customers are increasing their usage two to three times each year.