Estonia’s Äio and Tilk are building on their collaboration with their second product, a skin-boosting face cream that uses two of the former’s upcycled yeast-derived fat alternatives.
Two Estonian startups have launched a face cream featuring fats made with yeast and waste products.
Biotech startup Äio and personal care brand Tilk have unveiled a Skin Booster cream that uses Fermira RedOil and ZymaLipid Complex, two fermentation-derived fat alternatives developed by the former.
The product, which has already been shortlisted for the European Natural Beauty Awards 2026, follows the companies’ rollout of a skin-boosting serum in April, whose first production batch sold out within a week.
The new face cream is the first cosmetic innovation built on two of Äio’s ingredients, combined with bakuchiol and plant oils to deliver a rich, fast-absorbing cream that supports hydration, skin comfort, elasticity and the skin barrier.
How Äio’s fats work with other ingredients in new face cream
A spinoff from the Tallinn University of Technology, Äio is built on research conducted by founders Petri-Jaan Lahtvee and Nemailla Bonturi. It uses biomass and precision fermentation to turn sidestreams from the wood, dairy and wider food industry into nutrient-rich alternatives to animal and plant-based fats.
These sidestreams are fed to a proprietary ‘red yeast’ microbe to produce fats, with the entire process requiring 97% less land and 90% less water than palm oil production and taking 10 times less time.
Its RedOil ingredient is a bright-red active emollient with naturally occurring carotenoids, bioactives, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids. It can replace fish, seed and vegetable oils, and support skin barrier function, hydration, and resilience against environmental stressors.
On the other hand, ZymaLipid Complex is a high-purity fatty acid complex that provides emollience, structure and sensory properties in cosmetic formulations. It’s a texture-enhancing alternative to palm, coconut and soybean oils.
The Tilk face cream acts as a gentle, non-irritating retinol alternative, boosting skin renewal, elasticity and the skin barrier while reducing visible redness and signs of fatigue. It’s especially well-suited to dry, sensitive, or stressed skin.
The bakuchiol enhances that renewing effect and promotes smoother, more even-looking skin. Its calming and balancing properties work in tandem with RedOil to regenerate the skin.
These ingredients are combined with rice bran oil, black seed oil and wheat germ oil, which provide essential fatty acids and antioxidants, help restore the lipid barrier, boost elasticity, and protect the skin from moisture loss. Meanwhile, betaine and glycerin deliver hydration, and bisabolol adds a soothing touch to reduce discomfort.
Global distribution network sets Äio up for success
Äio and Tilk have been working together for years, the latter being one of the earliest adopters of RedOil when it was still under development. Initially, only a small amount of this oil was available for testing, so it took a few years of ingredient development, laboratory testing, documentation and formulation work for the first commercial product to be ready.
Tilk founder and CEO Pille Lengi said the cooperation between science and product development is critical when innovating something new: “If you want to innovate and create something completely new, you need to work with scientists.”
For Äio’s Bonturi, the launch proves that biotech ingredients can be incorporated into products for everyday use. “For a biotechnology company, success is achieved when our partners can formulate with it, manufacture with it and ultimately create products that people want to use,” she said.
“Our first product with Tilk showed that RedOil could make that journey. Today, we have two Äio ingredients together in a new commercial formulation, and the fact that the cream has already been recognised by the European Natural Beauty Awards makes all the work behind it meaningful.”
Äio is among a number of startups working on fermentation-derived fat alternatives, including Savor, C16 Biosciences, Clean Food Group, Melt&Marble, NoPalm Ingredients, and Terra Oleo.
These efforts come as manufacturers increasingly seek to shift away from planet-harming lipids like palm oil and petroleum-based mineral oils. Two-fifths of all oil produced is palm oil, which is a driver of rampant tropical deforestation and has been directly linked to wildfires in Indonesia and Malaysia.
It’s why the EU’s Deforestation Regulation, set to take effect this December after several delays, will ban the import of products like palm oil linked to deforestation. Violators face fines of up to 4% of their global turnover, and currently, 34% of palm oil imports potentially come from deforested land.
Äio also makes a fat ingredient for the food industry, a lipid-rich yeast biomass called Flavoured Fat, which offers an umami taste and functional mouthfeel. It’s already in talks with over 120 manufacturing partners, and has a global distribution network spanning Europe, India, South Korea, Brazil and the US to provide clients with access to its ingredients and formulation support.
The startup benefitted from three government-backed grants to advance R&D and scale up production, including a $2.6M sum last month to build a digital biomanufacturing platform. It’s now aligning its product development with EU regulations to ensure full safety and compositional characterisation, and expects to kick off a Series A round this quarter, which will help it notch large-scale tech licensing deals.
