Published on 05/10/2017

L'Oréal and Founders Factory announce new startups selected for the second edition of their beauty tech accelerator

Clichy / London, 5 October 2017 - L'Oréal and Founders Factory, a London-based leading global digital accelerator and incubator, announce their selection of startups for the second edition of their beauty tech accelerator. The startups Sampler and Riviter will join a 6 months accelerator programme, part of L'Oréal's and Founders Factory's partnership announced in 2016:

Sampler: Founded by Marie Chevrier in Canada in 2013, Sampler has helped hundreds of brands manage and measure their product sampling strategies through a more effective and targeted approach. [video]

Riviter: Created by Andi Hadisutjipto, Kris Woodbeck, and Rachel Chen in the US, Riviter has developed a visual search engine that uses patented AI technology to recognise products in images and matches them to products online, detecting both precise location and detailed attributes of the products. [video]

L'Oréal is also supporting the growth of Alegra, an existing startup within the Founders Factory accelerator:

Alegra: Founded by Alp Ocal in Turkey, Alegra helps brands to build their digital online platforms for content and e-commerce simultaneously on multi devices. [video]

Lubomira Rochet, Chief Digital Officer L'Oréal, said: "Merging the innovation capacities of L'Oréal with those of beauty tech startups creates a powerful synergy which helps to address the aspirations of our consumers and to build a new generation of personalised and smart digital services. In this "test&learn" approach, we are supporting the development and growth of promising young entrepreneurs by sharing our expertise and network, and in the meantime we invite them to bring new ideas to the digital projects of our brands. Open innovation is a win-win strategy that fosters disruptive thinking and pushes forward our digital leadership in beauty."

Henry Lane Fox, CEO and Co-Founder Founders Factory, said: "We fully understand the difficulties in launching a technology business and we are providing these startups with a competitive advantage; unrivalled support both via our Founders Factory operations team and the insights and scale of L'Oréal."

To learn more about open innovation at L'Oréal, please click here:
[Video from the pitching session with startups at L'Oréal headquarters]

About L'Oréal
L'Oréal has devoted itself to beauty for over 100 years. With its unique international portfolio of 34 diverse and complementary brands, the Group generated sales amounting to 25.8 billion euros in 2016 and employs 89,300 people worldwide. As the world's leading beauty company, L'Oréal is present across all distribution networks: mass market, department stores, pharmacies and drugstores, hair salons, travel retail, branded retail and e-commerce.
Research and Innovation, and a dedicated research team of 3,870 people, are at the core of L'Oréal's strategy, working to meet beauty aspirations all over the world. L'Oréal's sustainability commitment for 2020 "Sharing Beauty With All" sets out ambitious sustainable development objectives across the Group's value chain.
For more information: http://mediaroom.loreal.com/en/

About Founders Factory
Founders Factory is a new model in business creation, with genuine ambition and breadth, backed by some of the world's leading corporates across six sectors: L'Oréal (Beauty), easyJet (Travel), Aviva (Fintech), Holtzbrinck (Education), Guardian Media Group (Media) and CSC Group (Artificial Intelligence).
Founders Factory's in-house team is also composed of digital experts, many of whom are successful entrepreneurs themselves.
Positioned at the very heart of the global tech community and benefiting from its strong links to Founders Forum, Founders Factory is building and scaling over 200 early stage technology companies across six sectors within five years.
Founders Factory is accepting applications from tech startups across all six sectors: https://foundersfactory.com/accelerator/ www.foundersfactory.com @foundersfactory

"This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy L'Oréal shares. If you wish to obtain more comprehensive information about L'Oréal, please refer to the public documents registered in France with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, also available in English on our Internet site www.loreal-finance.com.
This news release may contain some forward-looking statements. Although the Company considers that these statements are based on reasonable hypotheses at the date of publication of this release, they are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated or projected in these statements."

CONTACTS AT L'ORÉAL

Individual shareholders and market authorities
Mr Jean Régis CAROF
Tel.: +33 1 47 56 83 02
[email protected]

Financial analysts and institutional investors
Mrs Françoise LAUVIN
Tel.: +33 1 47 56 86 82
[email protected]

Journalists
Mrs Polina HUARD
Tel.: +33 1 47 56 87 88
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