Coty Launches Digital Accelerator Start-Up Program
February 21 2018 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Announces up to $100,000 in Cash Prizes for
Best Pitches on Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Calls on Innovators and Creatives to Submit
their Pitches by March 12
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 12th. 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 27th and 28th 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.
About Coty Inc.
Coty is one of the world’s largest beauty companies with
approximately $9 billion in pro forma revenue, an iconic portfolio
of brands and a purpose to celebrate and liberate the diversity of
consumers’ beauty. We believe the beauty of humanity lies in the
individuality of its people; beauty is at its best when authentic;
and beauty should make you feel happy, never sad. As the global
leader in fragrance, a strong number two in professional salon hair
color & styling, and number three in color cosmetics, Coty
operates three divisions: Consumer Beauty, which is focused on mass
color cosmetics, mass retail hair coloring and styling products,
body care and mass fragrances with brands such as COVERGIRL, Max
Factor and Rimmel; Luxury, which is focused on prestige fragrances
and skincare with brands such as Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, Hugo
Boss, Gucci and philosophy; and Professional Beauty, which is
focused on servicing salon owners and professionals in both hair
and nail, with brands such as Wella Professionals, Sebastian
Professional, OPI and ghd. Coty has over 20,000 colleagues globally
and its products are sold in over 150 countries. Coty and its
brands are committed to a range of social causes as well as seeking
to minimize its impact on the environment.
For additional information about Coty Inc., please visit
www.coty.com.
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Coty Contacts:Jennifer
FriedmanJennifer_Friedman@cotyinc.com917-754-8399
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