The L’Oréal Innovation Runway : a new digital edition!

As part of an Open Innovation initiative, the L’Oréal Innovation Runway (LIR) was live for the 4^th year! This startup challenge is part of a partner competition of SLINGSHOT, one of the biggest deeptech startup challenge event in Asia, during the Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology (SWITCH). Global deeptech startups were invited to pitch their technology to L’Oréal R&I teams. Two winners each won S$5,000 cash prize, S$30,000 StartupSG grant, mentorship and the opportunity to work with L’Oréal.

As the entire SWITCH event was held online, L’Oréal also had a virtual building where we are able to showcase L’Oréal Group and our commitments, as well as Research & Innovation and Open Innovation activities to the event’s participants. L’Oréal Innovation Runway finalists were also given the opportunity to feature their company and technology within the building’s exhibition hall.

Re-invent concept & Idea of beauty!

This year’s challenge proposes to answer to this difficult question : what goes beyond the traditional concept and idea of beauty?

There were 4 main categories:

·        Protect: Solutions for broader and superior protection against external aggressors and lifestyle stressors

·        Cleanse: Solutions for robust and natural cleansing systems to simplify one's routine)

·        Repair & Enhance: Technologies that can repair damage and/or transform the quality of skin and hair

·        New Ingredients & Materials: Opportunities to develop disruptive products based on technical functionalities coming from outside of beauty industry

Despite concerns that COVID-19 situation would dampen startups appetite to participate in competitions, there was a 15% increase in the number of applications compared to 2019. Applications arrived from all over the world, with high numbers coming from the South APAC region where the LIR team focused most of the outreach effort. Out of 100+ applications, 10 finalists were selected to compete in the finals.

Due to travel restrictions and social distancing rules, the organizing team also had to pivot quickly from a physical final event to a hybrid setup combining virtual pitch and Q&A session with live studio components.

And who are the Winners ?

The finalists pitched their technologies virtually to a panel of judges: Sanford Browne (Senior Vice President R&I APAC), Ivan Rodriguez (Global Open Innovation Director, R&I), Mark Phong (Asia Director of Advanced Research Labs and Business Development), Yogesh Suradkar (Director R&I India), Matthieu Cassier (Director R&I Japan), and Seow Hui Lim (Director, Startup Development Division, Enterprise Singapore). 

Mark Phong: “This being a COVID-19 year, it’s been challenging for us. However, the quality of startups and the passion and engagement really came out in this competition, even virtually.” 

Brisil Technologies from India, who has an energy efficient technology to produce green precipitated silica from biomass waste, and Organic Bioactives from New Zealand, who has developed a highly efficacious bioactive extraction method from botanicals using patented TPT technology, emerged as the 2020 winners. 

“It is a great morale booster, great validation for the work we are doing. We see massive opportunity and we need L’Oréal in New Zealand to help us further develop and bring products on the market.” - Andrea Taimana, Organic Bioactives

Startups & L’Oréal : the will to partner

Although most of the event was conducted virtually, there was also a live panel discussion around Open Innovation in L’Oréal. Fabien Cabirol (APAC Open Innovation Director) and John Dangerfield (COO, Austrianova Pte Ltd, one of the winners of the inaugural LIR challenge) were invited to share their thoughts about how startups and corporates can work together.

How has working with L’Oréal benefited Austrianova and what advice can you give startups who wish to work with large corporates?

John: It helped us to develop a new product pipeline. We come from the medical field, and had ideas on how to use our technology for other industries but needed a strong partner to help make them a reality. Unlike big companies, startups exist from day to day so agendas are different. The startup has to acknowledge that the large company is the driving force making things happen, so it is the job of the startup to fit as fast as possible to understand what the company needs, and ticking those boxes.

How can corporates work better with startups?

Fabien: We need to give clarity to the startup about the proof of success and how to create value in the long run, and how long and what it takes to get there. Startups invest a lot of time and effort when working with us, they sometimes need to pivot and we need to respect that as a corporate.   

Despite (or perhaps because of) the challenges of 2020, the success of LIR is a testament to the continued demand of startups to actively seek partnerships with corporates like L’Oréal, and vice versa. Our continual engagement in the regional ecosystems emphasizes our commitment to partner closely with external scientific and entrepreneurial community to co-develop innovative solutions for our consumers.