Coty launches digital accelerator start-up program

Following the successful 2017 launch of Coty’s (NYSE: COTY) Digital Accelerator, Coty is announcing a new program for technology start-ups to share their latest innovations at Coty’s Quarterly Digital Accelerator Summit and earn the opportunity to work with Coty’s diverse brand portfolio. The new program will focus on a series of capabilities; the first is Artificial Intelligence.

Interested start-ups can submit their best Artificial Intelligence pitch by selecting any Coty brand from its 70+ portfolio by Monday, March 12^th. Submissions should:

• Provide a concise description of what makes the start-up unique in AI;
• Select a specific Coty brand and demonstrate how that brand will benefit from the start up’s AI technology, metrics are a plus; and
• Describe the preferred partnership model to drive in-market trialling.

Coty will then select up to eight start-ups, based on projected growth impact on one or multiple Coty brands, to present their ideas directly to Coty’s brand leaders at its Digital Accelerator Summit on March 27^th and 28^th in both London and New York City.

In parallel, there will be a prize fund of up to $100,000, with prizes of $10k - $50k awarded based on criteria fit (brand alignment, growth impact, scaling upside) for winning start-ups judged by a panel of Coty digital experts. Other benefits will include:

• Strategic support from Coty’s Digital team;
• Priority access to Coty brand executives worldwide;
• Coty’s domain expertise, including access to proprietary consumer research in the beauty and luxury industry; and
• Stress testing your technology with a real brand challenge using Coty budgets for initial pilots.

Jason Forbes, Coty’s Chief Digital and Media Officer, said, “At Coty, we’re focused on transforming our digital capabilities across the organization, and the launch of the Digital Accelerator represented a key milestone in this transformation. I’m thrilled to take this initiative a step further by bringing external start-ups into the mix. Coty has a growing expertise in partnerships with a breadth of start-ups to drive growth across our brands. This includes our acquisitions of Beamly and ghd, partnership with Younique and new connections via our relationship with Zenith. Throughout Coty, we foster an “act like a start-up” culture, encouraging creativity, agility and quick action. We’re excited about fostering deeper commercial relationships with start-ups aligned with our key priorities. AI is a foundational example of this.”

Fred Gerantabee, Coty’s VP of Digital Innovation, added, “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. We intend to foster these relationships and look forward to more examples like this coming out of our Digital Accelerator summits.”

Coty launched the Digital Accelerator in 2017 to connect Coty colleagues to external digital capabilities and start-ups, accelerating the development of Coty’s digital capabilities. The March 27 & 28 Digital Accelerator Summit is part of the 2018 series that will provide a broader set of innovative start-ups a forum to connect directly with Coty’s colleagues and brands through the lens of a specific capability. Upcoming themes will likely include AR, voice and 3D printing.

For the March Summit, Coty is partnering with its media agency of record, Zenith. Benoit Cacheux, Global Digital & Innovation Lead, Zenith, said, “We’re really excited to work closely with Coty across this important strategic capability. Zenith and Publicis Media have been able to unlock a suite of great AI start-ups and we look forward to introducing more through this important initiative.”

For further submission details or to submit an AI pitch, please contact digitalaccelerator@cotyinc.com.