Unilever enters tech partnership

Dove marketer has entered into a five-year partnership with Silicon Valley-based Ampere Life Sciences to access the firm's Digital Biology technology platform and secure exclusive rights for the development of innovative consumer products, U.K. firm announces Sept. 16. Unilever and Ampere scientists will work together on "the core biology of aging" for a "range of benefit areas of interest to Unilever," company says. Unilever Chief R&D Officer Genevieve Berger touts firms' "commitment to develop superior products across a number of categories and exclusivity that will potentially give us competitive advantage in the marketplace." Deal is in line with Unilever's "open innovation" approach, and such efforts will help the company meet consumer demand for healthy living as the market for aging products increases, firm notes. Though terms of the deal were not disclosed, work will begin immediately, the companies say. Unilever recently announced an undisclosed investment in Solazyme, a firm that produces renewable oil and bioproducts from algae that can be used as a substitute for petroleum and plant oils in personal-care products (1"The Rose Sheet" Sept. 20, 1010)