SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Sephora North America celebrates the Accelerate Program’s five-year anniversary with the announcement of the 2020 Cohort, marking the program’s achievement of its goal of supporting 50 women-led businesses by 2020. The most diverse cohort to-date Sephora Accelerate 2020 features two new global territories, Germany and Singapore, totaling 10 countries this year. The programming remains focused on guiding founders on their journey of achieving individual business goals through a multi-month program led by Sephora executives including but not limited to mentorship, marketing stewardship, networking, social media training, growth plans and funding strategy planning.
Some of the program’s key milestones includes:
- More than $850,000 in grants and funding to participating founders, with funds going toward things like fulfilling purchase orders, purchasing inventory, scaling operations and new hires.
- Assisted every merchandising brand in the program with securing space in a major retailer, if not within Sephora.
- The launch of seven new beauty brands at Sephora stores across the world, including LXMI, Vitruvi, Skylar, The 7 Virtues, Ahal, AloeLab, and Ho Karan.
“Our goal with the Sephora Accelerate program was to not only help 50+ high-potential, women-led businesses get their big break, but to also create a lasting and sustainable community for all those involved to benefit from long after their participation in the program,” said Corrie Conrad, Vice President, Sephora Stands (D&I, Social Impact, and Sustainability) for Sephora. “We are proud of what this program has accomplished in five short years, from helping dozens of individual businesses thrive, to creating personal and professional connections and education for all. The program is ever-expanding, and with brands from Germany and Singapore on board for the first time this year, we look forward to building an even richer and more diverse experience now and into the future.”
As a member of the 2020 Accelerate cohort, the 13 founders will participate in programming dedicated to fostering brand growth throughout the year, with access including:
- A one-week “boot camp” with expert guidance from Sephora corporate employees, beauty mentors, seasoned entrepreneurs, and other brand founders whose products are available at Sephora
- Personalized one-on-one mentoring for specific business challenges from Sephora leaders and beauty industry experts
- Monetary grants to support their business endeavors
- An invitation to pitch at the Sephora Accelerate Demo Day, where they present their company to industry experts, venture partners, and Sephora leaders to gain investments, advice on business growth tactics, and partnerships.
Meet the 2020 Sephora Accelerate Cohort, demonstrating leadership in beauty, technology and merchandising:
MERCHANDISING
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Angela Caglia, Founder, Angela Caglia Skincare (U.S.)
Angela Caglia Skincare is a natural product line that empowers the consumer to create facial self-care rituals at home. Dedicated to developing supercharged formulas to match even the most sensitive skin, each product contains organic and natural ingredients to protect skin from inflammation and over sensitization.
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Kailey Bradt, Founder, OWA Haircare (U.S.)
OWA Haircare is a first-of-a-kind water-activated clean beauty product. Its waterless, concentrated formulas are not only good for the planet, but also good for you and your hair, too.
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Ada Juristovski, Co-Founder, Nala Care (Canada)
Nala is a skincare company driven by a personal loss for the founders. All products are free from carcinogens, aluminum, parabens, phthalates, propylene glycol and cruelty.
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Helena Mendes, Founder, Mawena (France)
Mawena is a vegan, cruelty-free, organic skincare line created through the prisms of green beauty for all, engagement and inclusivity. The brand has a 100% Mayan Women’s cooperative in Mexico and donates a percentage of proceeds for each product sold.
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Zaffrin O’Sullivan, Co-Founder, Five Dot Botanics (UK)
Five Dot Botanics is a gender-neutral minimal ingredient skincare brand using only five ingredients in each product.
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Jennifer Baum, Founder, Gitti (Germany)
Gitti is a natural-based, vegan nail color brand, with a mission to revolutionize the nail polish industry with better products for consumers and for the sustainability of the planet.
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Renate Lozano, Founder, Own Authentic Cosmetics (Mexico)
Own Authentic Cosmetics is a clean cosmetic brand designed to change the customer’s experience with customizable products. Clients can customize their OWN collections, creating their own kind of beauty.
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Fernanda Kawazoe, Co-Founder, SOBREBARBA (Brazil)
SOBREBARBA, the first beard care company in Brazil, offers grooming products derived from natural sources. They encourage recycling and to, “always act responsibly,” with a percentage of their profits donated to reforestation projects in the Amazon forest.
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Jasmine Kang, Founder, Skinlycious (Singapore)
Skinlycious aspires to be the one-stop skincare solution for acne, acne-prone and oily skin. With distinctive active ingredients that cater to different groups of acne-battlers, the products are backed by scientific and clinical research.
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Aileen Wei, Co-Founder, Zero Waste Beauty (China)
Zero Waste Beauty is a vegan personal care line with sustainability at its core. Its bath, body and perfume products are oil and powder based, formulated with plant-based ingredients, and packaged in biodegradable and recycled materials to adhere to its zero waste principles.
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Keira Rumble, Founder, Habitual Beauty (Australia)
Habitual Beauty is a line of beauty food, nutraceutical and wellness products. Backed by science and making use of high-quality ingredients, the brand aids to seamlessly fit into women’s routines to slow down the visible signs of aging.
TECHNOLOGY
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Kymberlee Hill, Co-Founder, Curl IQ (U.S.)
Curl IQ turns photos of textured hair into personalized product recommendations, offering consumers with textured hair an easy and personalized shopping experience, and helping brands drive customer interaction and conversation.
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Dawn Myers, Founder, THE MOST (U.S.)
THE MOST Mint, an all-in-one styling tool, streamlines the process of detangling and applying product to highly textured hair, making the process faster, easier, and more convenient.
At Sephora, we stand with our people, planet and communities. Sephora Accelerate is a Sephora Stands program. Please visit SEPHORA STANDS to learn more about Sephora Accelerate, its benefits and this year’s Cohort.
@Sephora @SephoraLife #Sephorastands
About Sephora Americas
Since its debut in North America over 20 years ago, Sephora has been a leader in prestige omni-retail with the purpose of creating an inviting beauty shopping experience and inspiring fearlessness in our community. With the goal of delivering unbiased shopping support and a personalized experience, Sephora invites clients to touch and try 25,000 products from 400 carefully curated brands, enjoy services at the Beauty Studio and engage with expertly trained beauty advisors in more than 490 stores across the Americas, as well as over 660 locations inside JCPenney. Clients can also experience Sephora online and through our mobile app, access the free-to-join Beauty Insider program and digital community, which together enhance the experience of Sephora’s passionate clients. Sephora has been an industry-leading champion of diversity, inclusivity, and empowerment, guided by our longstanding company values. In 2019, Sephora announced a new tagline and manifesto, “We Belong to Something Beautiful,” to reinforce its dedication to fostering belonging amongst all clients and employees and to publicly strive for a more inclusive vision for retail in the Americas. Sephora continues to give back to our communities and advance inclusion in our industry through our Sephora Stands social impact programs.
For more information, visit: https://www.sephora.com/about-us and @Sephora on social media. For media inquiries, please visit our Sephora newsroom or email pr@sephora.com
