L’Oreal geared up to launch ‘two new companies a year’

The multinational beauty giant’s new collaboration with the London-based tech team is intended to accelerate its own digital programme, the company has said, further strengthening its position as a market-leader when it comes to maximising the power of tech and the internet​.

The partnership has ambitious aims: the two companies have pledged to invest and scale five early stage startups and co-create two new companies from scratch every year.

Transformative power of digital​

The move to work more closely with innovative beauty developers indicates that in a bid to keep its own offering at the forefront of the digital beauty offering, L’Oréal is willing to put trust and money into third party players rather than take on all development in-house.

“Through the partnership with Founders Factory, L’Oréal will deeply connect itself to a global ecosystem of world-class startups and entrepreneurs operating in the field of beauty, in line with L’Oréal’s CEO Jean-Paul Agon vision of the transformative power of digital for beauty,​” a spokesperson told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.

The mutually beneficial partnership is set to offer the beauty giant several key opportunities, according to the company. These are:

• Investment and partnership opportunities in beauty startups
• Competitive intelligence with a direct access to the digital startup networks
• Access to highly experienced successful and well respected entrepreneurs

How will it work in practice?​

The partnership will hinge on the digital expertise of the Founders Factory team, according to the L’Oréal spokesperson, who will guide the participating startups, as well as working with L’Oréal’s own team to come up with new innovations.

“The in-house team of experts at Founders Factory, many of whom are successful entrepreneurs themselves, will provide hands-on support and advice to participating startups, as well as working with L’Oréal to jointly build and launch new products and services​,” they confirmed.

Although London-based, L’Oréal is keen to stress that the project is intended to have a “truly global reach​”, with an eye to shaking up the digital beauty space on an international scale.

Speaking recently to The Drum, L’Oréal chief digital officer Lubomira Rochet explained that tapping into a pre-existing ecosystem of startups, as the partnership with Founders Factory allows it to do, will allow L’Oréal great agility and speed to market.