01.23.17
L’Oréal and Founders Factory have chosen the first 5 beauty tech startups that will be a part of the Beauty accelerator program. One winner is based in the U.S.—Preemadonna, creator of Nailbot, (shown above) a nail art printer that allows users to create and print designs from their cell phone. (More on Preemadonna—and the other 4 winners—below.)
L’Oréal announced last May that it invested in Founders Factory, a London-based leading global digital accelerator and incubator, co-founded by Brent Hoberman and Henry Lane Fox. As part of the partnership, L’Oréal and Founders Factory will choose 5 start-up companies to support each year.
Lubomira Rochet, chief digital officer L’Oréal, said: “We believe that open innovation will be key to identify new disruptive ideas and co-develop new services to meet the aspirations of our consumers. We are excited to champion the next generation of beauty entrepreneurs through our partnership with Founders Factory and accelerate their development by bringing them our expertise of the beauty industry.”
Henry Lane Fox, co-founder and CEO, Founders Factory, added, “We understand how incredibly hard it is to build a successful business and know that every founder feels the strain in terms of capital, time and resource. By coupling the expertise of our operating team with the knowledge and scale of L’Oréal, we provide an unrivalled platform for startups looking to make global impact.”
The 2017 Winners
This year, 180 applications were sent in from beauty entrepreneurs around the world. Nine were chosen to pitch their companies to Jean Paul Agon, CEO, at L'Oreal's headquarters in Clichy, France.
These 5 startups were selected to participate in a six month accelerator program:
L’Oréal announced last May that it invested in Founders Factory, a London-based leading global digital accelerator and incubator, co-founded by Brent Hoberman and Henry Lane Fox. As part of the partnership, L’Oréal and Founders Factory will choose 5 start-up companies to support each year.
Lubomira Rochet, chief digital officer L’Oréal, said: “We believe that open innovation will be key to identify new disruptive ideas and co-develop new services to meet the aspirations of our consumers. We are excited to champion the next generation of beauty entrepreneurs through our partnership with Founders Factory and accelerate their development by bringing them our expertise of the beauty industry.”
Henry Lane Fox, co-founder and CEO, Founders Factory, added, “We understand how incredibly hard it is to build a successful business and know that every founder feels the strain in terms of capital, time and resource. By coupling the expertise of our operating team with the knowledge and scale of L’Oréal, we provide an unrivalled platform for startups looking to make global impact.”
The 2017 Winners
This year, 180 applications were sent in from beauty entrepreneurs around the world. Nine were chosen to pitch their companies to Jean Paul Agon, CEO, at L'Oreal's headquarters in Clichy, France.
These 5 startups were selected to participate in a six month accelerator program:
- Preemadonna: A ‘Nailbot’ device and app that enable users to design and print art onto their nails using their phone—in a matter of seconds. It was created by Pree Walia, from the United States.
- InsitU: Personalized, natural skincare, founded by Dr. Maria Salichou, a scientist of Greek origin who holds a nuclear medicine PhD from the University of Oxford and has over 10 years of scientific experience in BioTech and healthcare.
- Tailify: A company based in London with a mission to connect big brands to social media influencers to create campaigns, as well as toold to enable those influencers to track, distribute and monetize their content. It was created by Fredrik Segerby from Sweden and Didrik Svendsen from Norway.
- Veleza: An app-based, supportive community of beauty lovers that helps users discover products that best match their needs while providing inspiration, advice and product reviews in real time. It was founded by Martynas Nikolajevas from Lithuania.
- Cosmose: Sophisticated location technology allows retailers to target offline customers via online channels. Founded by Polish entrepreneur Miron Mironiuk, Cosmose is already a success in Asia. It is based in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
