L'Oréal to nurture K-Beauty startups

L'Oréal, the world's largest cosmetics group, announced on Wednesday that it is recruiting digital and innovative technology companies to participate in the L'Oréal Big Bang Startup Fostering Program, which is promoted in collaboration with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

It's the part of L'Oréal Group's open innovation strategy in Northeast Asia, which began in China in 2020 and expanded to South Korea and Hong Kong last year.

In South Korea, this is the second year of recruitment following last year. The program targets two main areas: digital and research innovation.

The digital field seeks startups with solutions such as automated data-driven advertising, content search services for video and images, and conversational AI for text generation.

The research innovation field looks for companies with new ingredients or formulation technologies for skin and hair, as well as medical-related technologies that can be incorporated into beauty products.

Selected companies will receive mentoring, consulting, marketing, and networking support from L'Oréal.

They will also have the opportunity to collaborate with L'Oréal's relevant teams.

After evaluation, they can participate in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' global corporate collaboration program, gaining access to commercialization funds of up to 200 million won ($146,000) and specialized programs.

Write to Hyung-Joo Oh at ohj@hankyung.com