L’Oréal invests in beauty tech start-ups with new accelerator business-funding scheme

L’Oréal has launched an investment programme to support beauty start-ups, with the first intake including a nail art printer, a personalised skincare brand and an app to match beauty consumers to products.

L’Oréal, which owns professional brands including Decléor, Essie and Skinceuticals, launched the scheme with Founders Factory, which builds and scales early technology companies. It will support five early-stage startups and co-create two new businesses each year.

Lubomira Rochet, chief digital officer at L’Oréal, said: “We are excited to champion the next generation of beauty entrepreneurs… and accelerate their development by bringing them our expertise of the beauty industry.”

Following 180 applications, the five businesses chosen for the initial six-month accelerator programme were: InsitU, a personalised, natural skincare range; Preemadonna (pictured), a device and app that lets users design nail art on their mobile phone and print it directly on their nails; Tailify, a social influencer agency; Veleza, an appbased community of beauty lovers that helps match users to products; and Cosmose, a tech company that allows retailers to target offline customers via online channels.