KDC/ONE and Potion AI Announce Strategic Partnership to Bring AI-Powered Formulation and Regulatory Compliance to KDC/ONE’s Global R&D Network
Press release | January 12, 2026
Partnership will enable KDC/ONE to streamline and accelerate the full R&D lifecycle and better leverage its decades of innovation expertise through the use of Potion AI’s patented, industry-leading models and software platform.
Knowlton Development Corporation, Inc. (“kdc/one”), a global innovation and manufacturing partner in Beauty, Body, Scented, and Living solutions for some of the world’s most iconic and emerging brands, and Potion AI, Inc. (”Potion AI”), the beauty & personal care industry’s first and leading AI company, today announced a multi-year strategic partnership.
Through this partnership, select kdc/one labs and innovation hubs will gain access to the most sophisticated AI-powered R&D platform in the market. The collaboration is designed to leverage Potion AI’s suite of solutions for various aspects of R&D work, including ingredient discovery, formula generation, integrated regulatory compliance screening, and more.
“Beauty R&D is still full of brilliance that is trapped in lab notebooks, network drives, and PDFs,” said Yahya Syed, Co-Founder and CEO of Potion AI. “kdc/one has one of the largest and most sophisticated global lab networks in the industry, with years of knowledge and expertise built meticulously over time. Together, we are creating a single source of digital truth and equipping teams with intelligent tools to fundamentally transform the R&D process.”
“We are not looking for a push-button formula generator - we are looking for a force multiplier for our chemists,” said Craig Onofry, Chief R&D and Innovation Officer at KDC/ONE. “Potion AI allows us to create space for creativity and true innovation in product development, while helping us maintain compliance in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. The platform helps us bring our innovation history to life in a way that respects our craft and helps our brand partners win faster.”
kdc/one selected Potion AI following a competitive review, citing the team’s unique expertise and purpose-built nature of the platform for beauty & personal care. Based in Silicon Valley, Potion AI was started by former brand operators and technologists with deep experience across the beauty supply chain who have been working on the application of AI in cosmetic formulation since 2019, with multiple patents granted and pending globally. Today, more than 10,000 R&D and compliance professionals from over 3,000 brands, contract manufacturers, and independent labs use Potion’s tools to bring cutting-edge innovation to market.
For kdc/one brand partners, the partnership will help quickly launch market-leading innovation with the full weight of kdc/one’s knowledge and expertise behind them. The rollout will begin with selected North American KDC/ONE labs, with plans to extend to additional sites and regions following the first wave of deployment and validation.
Headquartered in Longueuil, Québec, Canada, kdc/one is a trusted global provider of value-added solutions to many of the world's leading brands in the beauty, body, scent and living - solutions categories. The company partners closely with both industry-leading consumer products companies and fast-growing independent brands in the ideation, formulation, design, packaging, and manufacturing of products. The innovative products that kdc/one has helped to develop are sold by its brand partners in more than 70 countries worldwide.
Potion AI is the leading AI-powered R&D and compliance platform for the beauty and personal care industry, helping teams streamline formulation, ingredient research, and compliance screening to bring cutting cutting-edge innovation to market faster. Based in San Francisco, Potion has multiple patents granted and pending globally and is powered by a proprietary formulation dataset spanning 80,000+ raw materials and millions of data points, which is then paired with each customer’s own formulation and ingredient data. Potion is backed by Y Combinator, 776 Ventures, Offline Ventures, and select beauty industry founders and operators.
KDC/ONE: kdc-one.com
Potion AI: media@potion.ai

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