Skin care ingredient maker Croda invests in Cutitronics

30-Jul-2017 - Last updated on 31-Jul-2017 at 15:53 GMT

The deal with tech company Cutitronics is about more than just skin care devices and personalized product recommendations. It’s an expertise exchange and an opportunity for Croda to be a major player in ‘big data for skin care’ market.

Financial specifics of the deal haven’t been made public. But, last week Croda announced that it has invested to be a minority shareholder in Cutitronics. As part of the partnership, Sandra Breene joins the Cutitronics board part time as a non-executive officer, according to a media release.

Breene is president of personal care and North America at Croda. “I am delighted to be personally involved in this partnership, which will not only allow us at Croda to be part of this intelligent application platform, but it will also enable us to utilise the very latest digital technology to gain greater insight of consumer behaviour using the data the device records,” she tells the press.

Breene goes on to explain that “we have long known that digitalisation will play a key role in our growth strategy, and with this wealth of information, we can continue to develop innovative and sustainable ingredients, provide better formulation support and share our knowledge with our customers as they strive to deliver the next generation of products to satisfy unmet market needs.”

Beta

At present, the Cutitron device exists as prototype. And it promises to do all things at once in the skin care tech space: branded skin care products get loaded onto cartridges that fit in the Cutitron device. Customers use the device to assess the needs and condition of their skin, to stimulate their skin and prepare it for treatment, and to apply the products in the sequence and doses deemed appropriate.

Through their new investment, “Croda has an exclusive commercial arrangement with Cutitronics,” according to release.

Data

By using an app in conjunction with the device, customers share data with a “virtual skin care coach” and the brand. These two specialists (one AI, one human) are two channels for consumers to interact with the brand and get individual attention.

Besides data on the daily skin care needs and behaviors of each consumer using the device and app, Croda will also be able to gather data on consumer skin type, geography, and weather. Having such data on global scale will inform the future of the company’s skin care ingredients business. “[The device] captures a far greater amount of data than ever before that Croda can use for future product development due to the better understanding of consumers’ personal care regimes and the factors that influence these,” according to the media release.