Coty has announced a new program that gives tech start-ups the opportunity to present their latest innovations at its quarterly Digital Accelerator Summit.
The program will give the start-ups the chance to work with Coty’s brand portfolio, and will focus on a series of capabilities; the first will be artificial intelligence (AI).
To submit, startups must provide a concise description of what makes it unique in AI; select a Coty brand and demonstrate how it will benefit from the start-ups AI; and describe the preferred partnership model to drive in-market trials.
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Eight startups will be selected based on projected growth impact on one or more Coty brands; those selected will present to Coty brand leaders at the Digital Accelerator Summit March 27th-28th, 2018, in London and New York City.
There will also be a prize fund of up to $100,000—with prizes ranging from $10,000 to $50,000—which will be awarded to winning start-ups based on brand alignment, growth impact and scaling upside. Other benefits will include strategic support from the Coty digital team, priority access to Coty brand executives around the globe; access to Coty’s domain expertise, including consumer research; and stress testing for technology.
“Partnerships between Coty and emerging companies such as Beamly and Holition, which launched our first app free augmented reality (AR) experience exclusively for Covergirl, is an indication of how we’d like to bring disruptive new approaches to the market in partnership with unique new players in AI, AR, voice and other rapidly growing technologies,” said Coty VP of digital innovation Fred Gerantabee. “We intend to foster these relationships and look forward to more examples like this coming out of our digital accelerator summits.”
