How L’Oréal is helping startups turn innovation into business

For tech startups, one practical question remains: Once a technology has been developed, who will actually use it? Even a breakthrough in the lab needs the right customers and real-world applications. Sometimes, opportunities emerge from unexpected industries. A company working in automation, artificial intelligence or plastics recycling may never have imagined collaborating with a beauty group. That is precisely what is happening through L’Oréal’s BIG BANG Beauty Tech Innovation Program. At this year’s China International Import Expo (CIIE), more than 20 winning startups took the main stage at L’Oréal’s booth, a record for the program. Barbara LAVERNOS, L’Oréal’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Research, Innovation and Technology, also delivered a keynote address: “BIG BANG serves as a bridge between outstanding ideas and global scale-up capabilities. We are committed to bringing local innovations to the world and shaping a more inclusive, sustainable and personalized future of beauty together.” Most of these companies do not make cosmetics, yet their technologies could offer new solutions for the beauty industry. Since its launch in China in 2020, BIG BANG has attracted more than 2,800 companies and led to over 100 commercial collaborations. The program has since expanded from China across North Asia, South Asia Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa. L’Oréal has 22 Research and innovation (R&I) centers worldwide. So why would a multinational group with such extensive research capabilities continue to invest time and resources in finding outside innovation partners? The answer lies beyond the lab. Why beauty giants and startups need each other When people think of innovation in beauty R&I, ingredients, formulations and product efficacy are often the first things that come to mind. But at L’Oréal, innovation spans the entire value chain, from raw materials and formulations to manufacturing, supply chains, marketing, consumer experience and sustainability. As digital technology, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and materials science advance, a broader range of technologies is shaping the beauty industry. Even L’Oréal, with its extensive research and innovation capabilities, needs technologies and expertise from other fields to complement its own. Meanwhile, many startups lack a clear understanding of the beauty industry's needs, as well as opportunities to validate their technologies and connect with potential clients. Against this backdrop, L’Oréal China made a bold move in 2020: launching BIG BANG. In her keynote speech, Barbara LAVERNOS noted that the boldest breakthroughs rarely come from one organization alone: "They happen when different minds meet." That belief underpins L’Oréal's ambition, as a leader in beauty, to build the industry's strongest ecosystem of partners. Through mentorship, engagement with L’Oréal's business teams and joint research and innovation, finalists can learn to translate technical capabilities into business solutions, finding applications in beauty for technologies originally developed for other industries. Most of the more than 20 companies featured in "Co-creation is in the Ecosystem” area (创美生态界”展区) at L’Oréal’s 2026 CIIE booth this year come from these four tracks. Katia Lan, Sustainability Director of L’Oréal North Asia and China, said the topics are set each year based on L’Oréal's needs for external collaboration, market trends expected over the next five to ten years, and the technological strengths of Chinese startups. Beyond bringing new technologies into practical use, L’Oréal is also opening its resources to a wider range of innovators. Under this year's theme, "Innovation with Impact," BIG BANG brings together ecosystem partners to explore business growth, better consumer experiences and sustainability. The winning startups span AI applications across the beauty value chain, from ingredient research and smart manufacturing to sustainable packaging materials and intelligent marketing. But identifying promising technology is only the beginning. Turning a scientific breakthrough into a market-ready product requires repeated testing and refinement before it can be commercialized. Over the past seven years, BIG BANG's most compelling results have emerged not from the awards themselves, but from what happened afterward. Why BIG BANG is more than a startup competition One of the hardest parts of technological innovation is integrating laboratory breakthroughs into the day-to-day operations of established businesses. New formulations must be suitable for mass production and pass quality checks, while industrial technologies must work with existing equipment and meet cost requirements. For startups, winning an award is only the beginning. The real test comes during commercialization. According to Gregory Arnal, Purchasing Director for L’Oréal North Asia and China, the group has introduced a fast-track process for startups, aiming to cut the approval process from nine to twelve months to three or four, without compromising its standards. SHINEHIGH INNOVATION, a Shenzhen-based company specializing in supramolecular chemistry, won BIG BANG's Future Science award in 2022. A year later, it secured investment from L’Oréal China, becoming the first BIG BANG startup to receive investment through the program. The two companies went on to incorporate the supramolecular technology into the fourth generation of L’Oréal Paris Age Perfect Collagen Royal and La Roche-Posay's CICAPLAST B5 SUPRAMOLECULAR range. LAVERNOS said La Roche-Posay's Effaclar range, which uses the technology, has also launched in Europe. "This is what transformation at scale looks like: from a startup idea to products in consumers' hands, and from China to the world," she said. Notably, several products making their global debut at this year’s CIIE also utilize supramolecular technology. This points to another value of collaboration between large corporations and startups: bringing new technologies to market. SHINEHIGH's experience shows that startups can provide major beauty groups with technologies that complement their existing research and innovation capabilities. What they need is an established system to support the process. That is why JeeSeon Park, Chief Sustainability Officer of L’Oréal North Asia and China, identifies "scale" as BIG BANG's greatest value to startups. For some companies, technical collaboration has developed into long-term investment. Veminsyn, a 2023 BIG BANG winner specializing in AI and synthetic biology, received investment from L’Oréal in 2025. At this year's CIIE, L’Oréal also announced an investment in PAM2L, a Chinese biomaterials company and a 2024 BIG BANG winner. It is worth noting that the co-creation result from L’Oréal and PAM2L has already been incorporated into the L’Oréal Paris Age Perfect Extraordinary series, a global debut at this year’s CIIE. All three companies work in biotechnology and upstream ingredient innovation. Their cases suggest that L’Oréal is looking beyond incorporating established technologies into existing products. Through long-term investment, it also aims to play a role in developing the next generation of beauty ingredients and technologies. Seven years on, BIG BANG has evolved from a beauty tech competition into a broader system for helping startups grow and bring their technologies to market. As the program expands into more markets, startups are also gaining opportunities to become part of L’Oréal's global industry network. From local innovation to global opportunity For startups, finding applications for their technologies at home is often just the first step. Expanding internationally brings a different set of challenges, from varying market demands and technical standards to complex supply chains. A multinational group's global network can help open doors. HCpect, a Chinese company that won this year's BIG BANG Sustainability Track award, is one example. Founded in Qingdao, HCpect has developed its proprietary CPDCC (catalytic pyrolysis deep catalytic cracking) technology to convert low-value plastic waste into high-quality crPP/crPE, that meets safety requirements for food-contact packaging components such as caps and pumps. As sustainable packaging becomes mainstream in the beauty industry, the potential for this technology extends beyond China. In September, BIG BANG winner HCpect was selected for L’Oréal’s sustainable innovation accelerator program, L’AcceleratOR. Together with Envision Group, it became one of the first two Chinese companies selected for the program. Katia sees this as an example of how different innovation programs can work together. By building on one another, the two programs are creating an expanding network of partnerships — one that began in China. Launched in 2020, BIG BANG partnered with Shanghai’s Oriental Beauty Valley a year later. More partners have since come on board. Local partners such as Shanghai JingAn Beauty Nova Tech Hub, have helped startups access industry resources, while Business France worked with L’Oréal China to establish a dedicated track for French companies. The twice-yearly BIG BANGer Community Forum also gives entrepreneurs opportunities to connect with investors. In 2023, BIG BANG expanded into Japan and South Korea and established a partnership with South Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS). A year later, it covered the North Asian market. The initial focus on regional collaboration reflects North Asia's particular strengths. LAVERNOS describes China, Japan and South Korea as a "Beauty Triangle," with each market bringing different capabilities and all three closely connected geographically. With innovation centers in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul, technologies can find partners within the region before expanding further afield, providing a more stable path to international markets. In 2025, L’Oréal North Asia hosted a forum at VivaTech, bringing leading BIG BANG startups from the three countries together on an international stage for the first time, thereby giving Asian companies an opportunity to broaden their influence in Western markets. Launched in 2020, BIG BANG held its first awards ceremony at CIIE that year. From 2023, winning startups gained exhibition space in the expo's Innovation Incubation Zone, with companies from Japan and South Korea also beginning to participate. This year, more than 20 winners gathered at L’Oréal's booth for the first time. These events have both showcased BIG BANG's achievements over seven years and created opportunities for startups to forge new partnerships. For startups, gaining access to L’Oréal's business teams, investors and international media through a single platform offers a concentration of connections that would be difficult to build independently. BIG BANG's seven-year relationship with CIIE also reflects the importance of the Chinese market itself. China is now L’Oréal's second-largest market worldwide and home to its North Asia headquarters. It has also become an important market for sourcing new technologies, building innovation partnerships and making investments. Born in China, BIG BANG is bringing local companies into the global beauty innovation ecosystem while also helping startups from Japan, South Korea and Europe gain access to the Chinese market. Seven years ago, BIG BANG began searching for its first group of innovators. Today, many of their technologies have entered L’Oréal's value chain. Some companies have secured strategic investment, while others have gained access to wider international markets. The winners taking the stage at CIIE this year may, through future research and innovation and commercial partnerships, help push the boundaries of innovation in beauty even further.

How L’Oréal is helping startups turn innovation into business

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How L’Oréal is helping startups turn innovation into business

TUMI’s new growth playbook: From travel expertise to lifestyle performance