With this agreement, L’Oréal becomes Station F’s partner for development of early stage digital beauty startups worldwide.
As part of the partnership, L’Oréal will run its own beauty accelerator inside Station F.
What is Station F?
Station F is based in Paris, backed by its creator Xavier Niel (Free Telecom, Kima Ventures, 42 coding school), a leading entrepreneur in the France tech scene.
It was opened in June this year, with the 34,000m2 campus set to be home to over 1,000 startups, with a planned 600-person housing extension opening in 2018.
How is L’Oreal going to be involved?
Through its beauty accelerator based on the campus, L’Oréal is set to finance 62 workstations there.
The company says it intends to support selected startups providing expertise in beauty and marketing, as well as networking and mentorship with group’s key stakeholders and a dedicated digital team.
Jean-Paul Agon, Chairman and CEO of L’Oréal, notes that its nature as a French-headquartered company makes partnership with Station F particularly appropriate.
“As a French company with a global reach, L’Oréal is proud to support STATION F’s ambition to make France a global center of digital innovation,” he said in a statement.
“As a beauty industry leader, we are thrilled to empower the next generation of beauty enthusiastic entrepreneurs. Together we will create a powerful innovation synergy to address the aspirations and diversified needs of beauty consumers worldwide.”
L’Oreal in digital
L’Oreal has made considerable strides in the recent period, taking on various strategic partnerships and making multiple significant investments in the specific field of startup development in the beauty tech scene.
“Digital is transforming beauty and we see a shift towards augmenting the consumer experience through services such as color try on, diagnostics, online beauty consultations, live broadcasting and personalisation,” confirms Lubomira Rochet, Chief Digital Officer of L’Oréal.
Our partnership with STATION F is strategic to help us connect, collaborate and support the rising generation of digital beauty entrepreneurs.
This partnership adds to L’Oréal’s large-scale digital open innovation strategy, which includes investments in Partech Ventures, an international venture capitalist firm, and Founders Factory, a London based digital accelerator and incubator.