Douglas wants to bring start-up Tomorrowlabs to other countries

The start-up already has a firm place on the shelves of Douglas in the German market. Now Tomorrowlabs not only wants to penetrate further into the European market, but also conquer other continents.

"Aging becomes curable" - that's not only the title of Nina Ruge's upcoming book, but also the promise of Austrian start-up Tomorrowlabs, in which Ruge is investing. Co-author of the book is, appropriately enough, founder Dominik Duscher, who wants to conquer the market with anti-aging products. Since the beginning of 2020, his start-up has been selling its own products exclusively in the stores of the perfumery chain Douglas. The cooperation with Douglas boss Tina Müller came about through Ruge's husband: Wolfgang Reitzle, chief executive at Continental and former Linde boss.

Ruge and Reitzle both hold nine percent of the start-up, which successfully launched last year despite having closed branches. Now the plan is to establish Tomorrowlabs products with Douglas in ten other European countries. The Austrians also want to gain a foothold in the US and Asia.

The market for anti-aging products is large and could grow to $66 billion by 2023, according to experts. Tomorrowlabs was co-founded by Duscher and Dominik Thor. The idea: the older humans get, the less active and efficient the protein Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF), which is crucial for cell renewal. Tomorrowlabs has developed the enzyme HSF, which is supposed to protect the HIF and thus further enable independent renewal of the cells. The promise: fewer wrinkles, rejuvenated hair texture.