L’Oréal USA recently announced the winners of the 2019 Women in Digital Next Generation Awards, a program that supports female leaders who are building technologies that have the potential to revolutionize the beauty industry. The three winners of the 2019 Next Generation awards, each of whom will receive $25,000 in grant funding, include Mandi Nyambi and Lanya Olmsted, the co-founders of Baalm, an online community for beauty; Lisha Li, the founder of Rosebud AI, a technology that lets users virtually try-on makeup, hairstyles and clothes from any social media photo; and Alyssa Min and Sunny Kim, the co-founders of Seknd, a smart beauty discovery platform for personalized product recommendations.
“This year, we received over 450 nominations, representing a diverse group of women from all over the country,” said Rachel Weiss, VP of strategic growth and open innovation at L’Oréal USA. “Narrowing this down was a tremendous challenge for our teams and judges, as we saw so many innovative early-stage companies founded by women whom I expect will all have an impact on the future of this industry. Although the landscape has changed quite a bit in the past seven years, we know there are still challenges for female founders. We are really honored to have the opportunity to help these entrepreneurs kick-start their businesses.”
Entry to the competition, which is now in its seventh year, was an open call to all women leaders who are inventing and building new technologies and interfaces, beauty services, communities and digitally native brands that address the needs of the modern beauty consumer.
This year L’Oréal USA also expanded upon its efforts to support this network, creating an inclusive, virtual Women In Digital community on the Alice platform that will continue to exist year-round as a resource for participating entrepreneurs from all over the United States.
The three winners of the Women in Digital NEXT Generation Award were selected by a panel of expert judges, featuring L’Oréal executives and leaders from the beauty and tech industries.
Mandi Nyambi, co-founder & CEO, and Lanya Olmsted, co-founder & chief creative officer, of Baalm
Baalm is an online beauty community creating a network of brands, consumers and skincare professionals that match the right products for the right skincare issues. Through Baalm, Nyambi and Olmsted seek to advocate to brands on behalf of consumers, to regulatory bodies and to the world for better ingredients, effective formulations and a culture of transparency. The team is all-female and seeks to be advocates for clean beauty and healthy skin.
Lisha Li, founder and CEO of Rosebud AI
Rosebud is a program that lets users virtually try on makeup, hairstyles and clothes from any social media picture. It works like a filter, but it lets users try on any look from a picture — found on Instagram, YouTube, and beyond — to virtually try it on themselves. The photo does not need to have been previously seen by the Rosebud AI model for the transfer to work. Rosebud makes this possible through its proprietary AI research in image synthesis.
Alyssa Min, Co-founder & CEO, and Sunny Kim, Co-founder and CTO, of Seknd
Seknd is a smart skincare discovery platform that uses technology to bring the best of retail to digital. Seknd, which its founders liken to “TripAdvisor for skincare,” takes what works in retail (contextualized recommendations and the ability to interact with a product sample) to create a new digital experience, tying product discovery to purchase. Seknd’s mission is to help beauty brands reach the right customers and grow their business, and to help consumers to make informed and personal beauty purchases based on objective data and insights. By leveraging machine learning to assist consumers in discovering and trying the right products for them, Seknd aspires to elevate the industry beyond subjective reviews, influencer fatigue, and “top 10” lists to focus on ingredient transparency, education, and personalized product recommendations.
In addition to receiving $25,000 grants, all Women in Digital NEXT Generation Award winners were invited to L’Oréal USA’s New York City headquarters to meet with executives and attend on-site events.
For more information about the program, click here.
