Making a bang: L’Oréal champions open innovation to drive consumer-focused solutions

The inaugural L’Oréal’s Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program is a regional open innovation competition that seeks to discover, support and nurture promising startups from across the SAPMENA region.

“The region that we cover, SAPMENA, from Morocco to New Zealand, is super, super ripe, in terms of the technology ecosystem,” said Lex Bradshaw-Zanger, chief marketing and digital officer of L’Oréal South Asia Pacific, Middle East & North Africa Zone (SAPMENA).

L’Oréal has ambitious plans for this programme in the region and the team is eager to expand its impact in this region for its vibrant tech ecosystem.

Across this region, the combined the combined startup ecosystem includes over 40,000 startups, with more than 180 unicorns and a deal flow that reached USD20bn last year.

“We’re just starting this year and next year will go even broader. There's a lot of energy to get to that level, and it’s super, super exciting,” said Bradshaw-Zanger.

“We’ve looked into the Gulf region, South East Asia, and India. The number of startups, the amount of technology, the amount of opportunity, the number of entrepreneurs who want to make a difference and have an impact, is incredible. We scouted around about 1,000 startups to get to the 10 here.”

The Big Bang initiative reflects L’Oréal’s commitment to embracing open innovation as a critical part of their strategy for growth and development in the beauty industry.

“We know that innovation doesn't just come from inside the organisation. Even if we are biggest in beauty, the biggest investor in our own research – we're the biggest spender there, no doubt – but we know we need open innovation to infuse other ideas,” said Bradshaw-Zanger.

By adopting an open innovation approach, L’Oréal aims to incorporate external ideas and insights into its processes, fostering creativity and fresh perspectives.

Bradshaw-Zanger added that the focus on the consumer is a critical lens through which all aspects of product development and technological advancement are viewed.

“Everything is about the consumer. We have to understand what's happening in the market, understand consumers, understand what their challenges and need gaps are and then fill it. Even when we're looking at technology here, it's all about the consumer. It's all about saying: What does the consumer need? What's their pain point, and how do we solve it?”

He added that this approach not only drives innovation but also allows L’Oréal to adapt to market changes and consumer needs more effectively.

He highlighted a number of innovations the company has pioneered, including its investment and eventual acquisition in Modiface, which specialised in augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications for the beauty and cosmetics industry.

“Since then, the vast majority now of our online services are all built through the Modiface technology, and we've built more technology with them. We've gone from virtual try-on to skin analysis to a bunch of different things, and they all come to life, slightly different names, slightly different brands.”

He concluded: “And that's very much the L'Oreal mentality. And we have a lot of sayings at L’Oréal – seize what’s starting is one of them. Meaning if you see something that's interesting in the market, and you place a bet on it, you get behind it, and you test and learn. That’s what we’ve done That's helped us because you learn by doing,” said Bradshaw-Zanger.

Starting with a bang

The company claimed that this programme was the biggest beauty tech open innovation competition of this geographical scale.

The programme piloted in 2020 as the Beauty Tech Open Innovation Challenge in China.

“In this inaugural edition of the Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program, we’ve already seen some incredibly promising ideas and look forward to partnering with our three winning tech startups to nurture their innovation for the beauty world. By collaborating with strong partners, we aim to accelerate the pace and significance of our beauty tech innovations for the consumers of SAPMENA,” said Vismay Sharma, President of L'Oréal SAPMENA Zone.

This year, three startups from Singapore and India emerged as winners of the programme.

This included Creatively Squared from Singapore, Live2.ai from India, and NeuralGarage from India as well.

The winners were awarded a L’Oréal-funded commercial pilot opportunity and a year-long mentorship program with senior executives from L’Oréal and the program partners.

Startups who prove successful pilots in SAPMENA could have the opportunity to work with L’Oréal globally.