Estée Lauder Companies eyes India’s start-up ecosystem to foster new beauty brands and artists

08 Jun 2023 --- Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) has kicked off the second edition of its India-focused program to scale new beauty start-up businesses, called Beauty&You. 

The first program was introduced last year to new and emerging brands. With over 300 entries across 50 Indian cities, the application pool included various beauty brands across skin care, hair care, fragrance and color cosmetics.

The 2023 program broadens the initiative’s scope, inviting scientists and labs, photographers, filmmakers and other “key members” of the beauty ecosystem to apply alongside beauty start-up founders.

Created by ELC’s New Incubation Ventures and launched in partnership with India’s preferred beauty and lifestyle retailer, NYKAA, Beauty&You aims to “discover, spotlight and propel the next generation of Indian beauty brands.”

“With a higher degree of consumer awareness than ever and an influx of options unlike anything that the market has seen, India represents an exciting opportunity for the global beauty ecosystem,” says Shana Randhava, SVP of New Incubation Ventures at ELC.

Judges of the second edition of the Beauty&You competition (Image credit: ELC).“Building on the success of last year’s program, we expanded the scope and scale by increasing the award categories to invite a broader group of founders, creators and innovators to join us,” she highlights. 

“In addition, we commissioned a study to spotlight the biggest trends and most interesting insights to help entrepreneurs innovate for the future.”

Scientists and filmmakers invited to participate
The program supports India-focused companies, entrepreneurs, innovators and creators through a competitive application process that will be open to prospective applicants on June 7, 2023, through August 5, 2023.

Winners stand to gain financial support, with a total prize pool of up to 4 crore (approximately US$500,000) across the entire program for the most innovative and creative ideas.

Beauty&You presents four “Main Prizes” within its prize pool. The first category is called “Imagine,” which is offered to pre-launch beauty concepts in the skin care, makeup, hair care, personal fragrance and home fragrance. Funding in this category is available up to US$75,000.

The second Main Prize category is “Grow,” presented to in-market beauty concepts in the same categories mentioned above in “Imagine.” This is valued at up to US$150,000 in funding.

The third category, “Breakthrough,” offers up to US$50,000 in prize money to innovators in active ingredients that address key issues for the Indian consumer.

The final category is called “Create,” which offers up to US$50,000 in funding to the next generation of creative talent – such as photographers and filmmakers – submitting work around the theme of “Experiential Beauty in India.”

Community-led “Jury Prizes”
Next to the “Main Prizes,” two categories of “Jury Prizes” are offered as a way for the broader beauty community to participate in voting. The first category, “Community,” is awarded to brands and founders with the best customer connection, which offers up to US$10,000.

The second Jury Prize, “Impact,” awards up to US$50,000 to the most innovative brands demonstrating unique solutions and programs to promote environmental, social and community Impact through beauty.

Winners stand to gain financial support, with a total prize pool of up to 4 crore (approximately US$500,000) (Image credit: ELC).Winners will also receive mentorship through access to experts from across the beauty landscape, including in product and content development, brand building, finance, operations, supply chain management and local and global distribution support.

In terms of visibility, winners will have national and international press along with amplification of their brands on the Estée Lauder Companies platforms.

India’s evolving beauty landscape
The finalists will be announced on November 2, 2023, at a live event in Mumbai.

“Having played a critical role in building India’s beauty landscape over the last decade, we are excited to discover and enable homegrown brands to scale and realize their full potential by sharing our knowledge and distinct retail expertise,” comments Anchit Nayar, executive director and CEO at NYKAA Beauty.

ELC is publicizing a new report, “Decoding the India Beauty Landscape,” developed by Beauty&You in partnership with 1Lattice – a New Delhi-based, tech-enabled business research and analytics firm. The analysis focuses primarily on various factors affecting consumer purchase behavior, including concerns, motives, pain points and accessibility.

These insights will be shared with prospective applicants and award recipients to craft strategies for their brands.

In other recent ELC developments, the group reported net sales of US$3.75 billion for its third quarter ended March 31, 2023, a decline of 12% from US$4.25 billion in the prior-year period. Company stocks fell 17.34% yesterday. However, its Fragrance category grew double digits.

The beauty titan also completed its acquisition of the Tom Ford brand last month, in a deal that values the total enterprise at US$2.8 billion.

By Benjamin Ferrer