Covalo secures 3.5 million euros in growth capital

The Zurich-based startup Covalo has closed a seed expansion round of 3.5 million euros. The financing was led by Hi inov, with existing investors HTGF and seed + speed Ventures also participating.

Five years after its foundation, Covalo is thus positioning itself away from being a pure ingredients marketplace towards a genuine data infrastructure for the personal care industry. The platform currently connects more than 1,500 suppliers with over 6,000 brands, including industry giants such as Givaudan, Symrise, PUIG and La Prairie.

Fragmented data slows down innovation

The cosmetics and personal care industry is facing a structural problem. Data on ingredients is highly fragmented. For a single product, there are often dozens of raw materials and hundreds of associated documents. This ranges from safety data and regulatory requirements to sustainability information.

This information is usually available in different formats and systems and is rarely linked to one another. For companies, this means a high level of manual effort in research, regulation and purchasing.

The pressure is also increasing due to new regulatory requirements such as the EU Green Deal or stricter environmental and packaging guidelines. By 2030, around 80 percent of all products could have to be reformulated, which would be a massive driver for increasing data complexity.

From marketplace to data infrastructure

Covalo is addressing this problem with an integrated platform that is directly integrated into the systems of suppliers and brands. The aim is to replace the previous data exchange via emails, PDFs and tables with structured, standardized data flows.

Changes to ingredient data, such as compliance certificates, will be visible to all relevant stakeholders in real time. At the same time, new raw materials can be integrated directly into development and procurement processes. Product data accompanies the entire life cycle of a product and forms the basis for more efficient processes and the use of AI.

Strong growth and increasing use

The platform is already showing scaling effects. In 2025, user engagement increased by 84%, with around 1.3 million monthly interactions. Net revenue retention is over 145 percent In addition, Covalo is strengthening its position through partnerships with organizations such as TraceOne, Reed Exhibitions and the B Corp Beauty Coalition.

AI and international expansion

Covalo intends to use the fresh capital to further expand its platform and focus more on AI-supported applications. Among other things, solutions for automated workflows, data enrichment, compliance checks and conversational analytics are planned.

At the same time, the enterprise business is to be scaled in key markets. In the long term, the start-up is also aiming to expand its data infrastructure to adjacent sectors.