Clichy, 28 April, 2016. L'Oréal has partnered with Hello Tomorrow Challenge 2016 to play a key role in this global competition for world-changing scientific & technological innovations. Hello Tomorrow is an international, non-profit initiative devoted to promoting early-stage scientific startups that are solving the world's major industrial & societal challenges. Now in its third edition, the initiative has grown into a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem that empowers scientists to transform innovations into world-changing products. What attracted L'Oréal to this challenge was the idea of creating products and services jointly with one-of-a-kind partners. Promoting high-potential innovations, developed by start-ups from around the world, and showing that beauty challenges are technological ones, are important objectives for L'Oréal. Moreover, startup flexibility has the capacity to reduce product development times.

Under this partnership, L'Oréal will work with Hello Tomorrow to assess the latest trends and define the Beauty & Wellbeing category scope in the international competition, Hello Tomorrow Challenge 2016. This all-encompassing approach includes more than a dozen emerging scientific and technological fields such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning, nanotechnology, synthetic biology. This multidisciplinary approach allows new solutions beyond conventional cosmetic approaches to invent new products that can dramatically change the world of beauty and wellbeing.

'Startups looking for technological challenges will find avenues in the field of beauty and well-being to express their creativity and mastery of big data, biotechs and the microbiome, leading-edge imaging, cognitive sciences or machine learning, etc. These solutions, possible way off-field, will change the face of the beauty industry,' said Jacques Leclaire, Scientific Director of the L'Oréal Group.

With the Hello Tomorrow community of investors, researchers and entrepreneurs, L'Oréal will invite its best international experts to evaluate the projects. The competition will provide young start-ups financial support, mentoring and considerable visibility with world experts and leaders. L'Oréal will also lend its scientific expertise to high-potential startups, ensuring that these startups will get the support they need to accelerate their product development. Contestants have until June 17, 2016 to apply for the Challenge.

An international jury will select and announce the winners at Hello Tomorrow's Global Summit in October 2016, which last year, attracted nearly 3,000 delegates worldwide. The grand prize winner will be awarded 100,000 euros. L'Oréal will be presenting the award of 15,000 euros to the track winner of Beauty & Wellbeing.

Other Challenge tracks include:

- Air Quality
- Beauty & Wellbeing
- Food & Agriculture
- Healthcare
- Data
- Industry 4.0
- Energy
- Water & Waste
- Transportation & Mobility
- Aeronautics

To date, more than 60 million euros has been raised by Hello Tomorrow's semi-finalists. Startups have received mentorship and practical guidance from over 150 entrepreneurs, investors, industry participants and partners as well as access to international markets.
Interested startups can apply for Hello Tomorrow Challenge 2016 here: http://challenge.hello-tomorrow.org/
About L'Oréal
L'Oréal has devoted itself to beauty for over 105 years. With its unique international portfolio of 32 diverse and complementary brands, the Group generated sales amounting to 22.5 billion euros in 2014 and employs 78,600 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 and branded retail.
Research and innovation, and a dedicated research team of 3,700 people, are at the core of L'Oréal's strategy, working to meet beauty aspirations all over the world and attract one billion new consumers in the years to come. L'Oréal's new sustainability commitment for 2020 'Sharing Beauty With All' sets out ambitious sustainable development objectives across the Group's value chain. www.loreal.com

About Hello Tomorrow
Hello Tomorrow is a non-profit organization founded in 2011. It aims to bridge the gap between scientists, entrepreneurs and investors in all major scientific and technological fields. Today, it is a global, interdisciplinary community with presence across 45 countries, gathering more than 15,000 innovators within the Hello Tomorrow ecosystem. The Hello Tomorrow Challenge, a global startup competition, has attracted nearly 5,000 startups across 112 countries since its inception in 2014.

Press contact

Patricia Pineau
patricia.pineau@loreal.com
tél. : + 33 1 47 56 44 04

Stéphanie Carson-Parker
stephanie.carsonparker@loreal.com
tél.: + 33 1 47 56 76 71

Hello Tomorrow Media Relations
Email: press@hello-tomorrow.org
Tel: +33 (0) 9 70 46 19 53

L'Oréal SA issued this content on 28 April 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 28 April 2016 15:25:19 UTC

Original Document: http://www.loreal.com/media/press-releases/2016/apr/loreal-partners-with-hello-tomorrow