Regulatory issues, NGO demands and consumer preferences have transformed the global beauty market during the past quarter century. But for the past 25 years, Coptis has helped its customers decipher these complexities enabling cosmetic brands to create effective formulas in a timely fashion and on budget.

The company was founded by Anne Karagoz. As an R&D manager with Yves Saint Laurent, Karagoz struggled to find technical information on raw materials. With the internet revolution underway, she saw the need to create an easy-to-access database that provided necessary information for formulators.

“Twenty-five years later, many of those customers are still with us today,” noted Deputy Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Coeur. That includes Clarins, which was one of the first to join Coptis. Today, more than 4,500 people worldwide use Coptis software and customer training sessions take place on four continents. The company’s current customer list is evenly divided between multinationals and contract manufacturers. They all choose Coptis’ solutions to streamline the product development process—from searching and researching raw materials to formula design with instantaneous non-compliance alerts.

Coptis offers an array of products for researchers. Coptis Lab software is specifically designed for cosmetics product development and global regulatory compliance. It enables users to efficiently manage development projects, ensure compliance, reduce time to market and improve the quality and reliability of information.

Coptis Ingredients database enables formulators to identify cosmetic raw materials they need to start their product development process. Formulators can access detailed information and technical documents on more than 18,000 cosmetic raw materials.

Coptis Tox is a toxicology database that enables users to organize data to anticipate the safety of formulas at the initial steps of the development process. Coptis Tox automatically calculates the Margin of Safety (MoS) for each ingredient of the formula to conduct the risk assessment characterization.

Coptis Reg is a global regulatory database that ensures a product is in compliance before it reaches production. Users have access to validated, detailed and updated cosmetic regulatory data.

According to Coeur, customers are attracted by Coptis’ flexible software solutions because they meet their formulations needs—from startups to multinationals.“We’ve always been very proud of the fact that we can offer the same flexible tools to customers who have vastly different needs,” he explained. “When we develop a new solution, it benefits all of them.”

With a degree in biotech engineering, Coeur joined Coptis in 2012 as a technical sales representative. Two years later, he moved into business development and helped the company enter Asia. Today, Coptis has offices in France, the US and Singapore. To propel growth, in 2021, Coptis secured funding from Extens and Clearsight to expand operations even further.

Everyone agrees that the global cosmetics market has become more complex. Coeur says that while Coptis covers all R&D needs, the two biggest challenges for cosmetic chemists remain formulation and regulatory. As its customer base grew, Coptis developed more features including sourcing raw materials, designing formulas and even testing and packaging modules.

The Changing Beauty Landscape

“As the industry evolves, we’ve added testing and packaging modules, and even certification justification,” explained Coeur.

On the regulatory side of the business, Coptis expanded its capabilities to handle REACH certification, IFRA allergens and more recently, new China regulations and MoCRA standards in the US.

“In addition to these country and regional regulations, more retailers and brands have their own policies,” noted Coeur. “Our software can help formulators reduce the time it takes to scour regulations—from as many as three days to as little as three minutes.”

In fact, according to company estimates, users save 30% of their time when moving from spreadsheets to Coptis software.

To help customers get the most out of Coptis software, the company offers on-site training that last for several days. If their schedules don’t permit that kind of commitment, users may opt for eLearning tutorials. Finally, Coptis “User Club” opportunities take place at neutral sites, often following international trade shows.

“We can tailor lessons to their needs and their budgets,” noted Coeur.

What’s Next: AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to impact every industry—including cosmetic formulation. Coptis is in the process of developing an AI element for its Coptis Lab software. Currently, the company is training the model and it remains in the R&D phase. Coptis is working with its customers to share their data so the model achieves 95% accuracy.

“At the moment we are about 80% accurate—not accurate enough to launch a product,” explained Coeur.

He noted that all data is secure, confidential and encrypted with no way to reverse engineer information. The Coptis executive expects its foray into AI to be successful, noting that Coptis has the critical mass of customers and diversity of data to be successful.

“We want to ensure that the AI is accurate and fast. If customers know their trial has a low chance to succeed, they won’t spend time on a failed launch. They can spend more time being creative.”

Coptis began its AI journey two years ago with the goal of improving speed to market and boosting creativity—but not eliminating the cosmetic chemist.

“You can never simulate creativity,” explained Coeur. “Most of our customers are very excited about the promise of AI.”

More Intelligence

AI may be the buzzword of the moment, but Coptis customers are also interested in a range of environmental issues such as carbon footprint, water usage traceability. Coptis software can help researchers know more about the ingredients they work with on a daily basis. Just as important, Coptis software helps users connect all of their systems, which enables them to make more intelligent decisions.

Coeur is excited about the next 25 years at Coptis. After all, the first 25 led to the creation of software that enables users to better access and manage data. The next 25 years of innovation will go beyond data to proactively assist formulations. That includes suggesting new raw materials or new combinations of raw materials.

Coeur added, “After 25 years, our customers ask themselves, ‘how did we ever do this before we had Coptis?’ Over the next decade, we expect them to say the same thing about our AI-enabled software.”

What’s next? Coptis continues to help laboratories transition from notebooks to software. But at the same time, Coeur noted that no one could have predicted how the pandemic forced companies to collaborate online.

“The next 25 years is all about proactive assistance. We’re helping customers create formulas and anticipate issues prior to launch,” concluded Coeur. “We’re helping cosmetic chemists achieve maximum creativity.”