L'Oréal USA held its seventh Digital Next Generation Awards, an open call competition whose winners receive $25,000 in grant funding. The program focuses on and supports women who are inventing and building technological innovations in the beauty industry.
Winners:
—Mandi and Lanya Olmsted, co-founders of Baalm, an online beauty community
—Lisha Li, founder of Rosebud AI, a technology that allows people to virtually try on hairstyles, makeup and clothes from social media photos
—Alyssa Min and Sunny Kim, co-founders of Seknd, a 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, vice president of strategic growth and open innovations 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.”
