XCellR8 celebrates 10th year

XCellR8, a north west, UK-based company that provides testing for the cosmetics industry, is celebrating its 10th year with a hat trick of growth news, including a new office move, new staff and funding.

The company provides entirely animal-free safety and efficacy tests to the cosmetics, personal care and chemical industries and is the only laboratory internationally to have achieved regulatory recognition for animal-free adaptations of regulatory tests that have not only eliminated the use of animals, but animal-derived components as well.

It is the only lab in the world to make its tests entirely animal-product free in a regulatory environment. It does not use serum, tissues or antibodies extracted from animals. Trusted by leading cosmetic and chemical companies around the world, it has just completed its 1,000th piece of testing for cosmetics giant Lush.

The company was founded in 2008 by Dr Carol Treasure and Bushra Sim and has a very clear mission to accelerate the world’s transition to animal-free testing. The 10th year sees it deliver a 37% year-on-year revenue growth following 40% growth in 2017.

The move to a new state-of-the-art laboratory on the National Science and Innovation Campus, SciTech Daresbury, will triple the company’s lab capacity expanding the R&D facilities while also growing the capacity for work with clients through the UK and internationally.

Growth for the company will be further accelerated with a £150k injection of funding from FW Capital, which has helped finance the move and will bring in new world-class lab equipment and additional work stations.

Dr Treasure said of the growth: “The past 10 years has seen myself and Bushra build the company that we dreamed of when we first became colleagues in 1996. From an early stage, we agreed that animal testing poses not only ethical issues but fundamental scientific ones. The world leading science we have developed within the business matched with our ethics and beliefs has meant that we have been able to grow a company based on our core values but firmly rooted in innovation and advancements in science.”