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Top innovators from across the SAPMENA region to compete for a L’Oréal-funded commercial pilot opportunity and a year-long mentorship program
SINGAPORE, Sept. 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Top innovative startups from across the South Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa (SAPMENA) region are one step closer to win a L’Oréal-funded commercial pilot opportunity and year-long mentorship program. After a rigorous evaluation process by industry experts, 10 startups from the SAPMENA region have emerged as grand finalists of L’Oréal’s 2025 SAPMENA Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program, each offering bold, scalable and tech-driven solutions that address critical challenges in the beauty industry.
The biggest Beauty Tech open innovation competition of this geographical scale, the Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program intensifies L’Oréal’s startup focus and investment in beauty innovation. During the Grand Finale in Singapore on 7 November, these 10 finalists will pitch their ideas to a distinguished judging panel of industry experts from L’Oréal, Google, Meta and Veros Ventures. These innovative startups represent some of the most promising talent from SAPMENA, a region known for its rapid growth, large population, and young, digitally-savvy consumers.
Grand Finalists of L’Oréal’s 2025 SAPMENA Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program
- Betterdata (Singapore): Betterdata offers large-scale synthetic data generation, ensuring privacy and the provision of synthetic data for analytics and model training.
- Digital First AI (UAE): Digital First AI is a platform which supercharges marketing campaigns and maximises ROIs through proprietary AI agents and workflows.
- Halo AI (UAE): Halo AI helps brands scale their content creator collaborations with AI-powered analysis to manage, vet and select creators.
- Heatseeker (Australia): Heatseeker enables marketers to run live, in-market experiments with real customers using its AI-powered platform, providing rapid, quantitative evidence.
- Infloso AI (India): Infloso AI is an ecosystem of AI tools at the convergence of technology, marketing, advertising and the creator economy, helping marketers build brands across platforms.
- Newera Bio (Australia): Newera Bio develops bio-based dyes and binders for the cosmetic and textile sectors that significantly lower the cost and resource intensity of material dyeing while improving performance.
- Springboards (Australia): Springboards AI is a cloud-based AI platform designed to accelerate and enhance creativity with AI-powered tools to assist creatives in research, ideation, concept validation and campaign creation.
- Sravathi AI (India): Sravathi AI is a silico chemistry AI platform that designs and develops advanced pharma using AI, molecular modelling, biochemistry and chemical engineering.
- Without (India): Without is a material science enterprise ethically transforming unrecyclable waste into high-quality, recyclable materials and products, creating a circular economy.
- Wubble.ai (Singapore): Wubble.ai is the world’s first enterprise grade AI solution for businesses to create royalty-free, personalised music in seconds.
During the Grand Finale on 7 November, these teams will compete for the opportunity to work with L’Oréal in a commercial pilot with one of the Group’s 37 international brands, tap into potential exposure in 35 markets across the SAPMENA region, and embark on a year-long mentorship program with senior executives from L’Oréal and the program partners.
Lex Bradshaw-Zanger, Chief Marketing & Digital Officer for L’Oréal SAPMENA, said, "The high quality of entries for the 2025 Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program truly speaks to the exceptional creativity and ingenuity of these innovative startups in beauty tech. At L’Oréal, we know that we cannot innovate alone, and collaborating with these leading startups allows us to explore new ideas, test groundbreaking solutions and push the boundaries of beauty tech to redefine what beauty can be. Congratulations to the teams competing in the Grand Finale and I look forward to seeing their pitches in Singapore this November."
L’Oréal is dedicated to fostering a culture of innovation. Fast Company named L’Oréal in its Top 50 2024 Best Workplaces for Innovators list and winner of the Beauty and Fashion category, in recognition of its commitment to encourage and develop innovation at all levels.
About the Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program in SAPMENA
The Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program is the biggest Beauty Tech open innovation competition of this geographical scale. Designed to discover, support and nurture promising startups from across the South Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa (SAPMENA) region, the competition is open to startups from countries including Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.
Startups are given the opportunity to develop their pilots in Beauty Tech innovation in one of five challenge themes: Consumer Experience, Content & Media, New Commerce, Tech for Good and Science for Beauty. Top innovators crowned during four regional finals (Middle East, India, Australia & New Zealand, and Southeast Asia) advance to the SAPMENA Grand Finale on 7 November 2025. The judging panel comprises industry experts from L’Oréal, Google, Meta and Veros Ventures.
The top three Grand Finale winners will win a L’Oréal-funded commercial pilot opportunity and a year-long mentorship program with senior executives from L’Oréal and the program partners. Startups that run successful pilots in SAPMENA could gain access to L’Oréal’s global network, with the SAPMENA region acting as a launchpad to leverage valuable partnerships and market insights.
For more information, visit http://bigbang.lorealsapmena.com/.
About L’Oréal South Asia Pacific, Middle East, and North Africa (SAPMENA) Zone
Home to 3 billion people and 40% of the world’s population, the South Asia Pacific, Middle East & North Africa (SAPMENA) Zone is a major growth engine for L’Oréal and a global talent hub. The SAPMENA Zone was formed in 2021 to drive focus on consumer needs and growth in many of the world’s most populous, young and fast-growing economies. Across 13 entities and 35 markets spanning New Zealand to Morocco, the L’Oréal SAPMENA Zone is reinventing beauty experiences for our consumers through a portfolio of over 30 international brands and game-changing Beauty Tech innovations. Our business model is built on responsible and sustainable growth, with commitments which focus on three key areas – the planet, the people and our products.
About L’Oréal
For 115 years, L’Oréal, the world’s leading beauty player, has devoted itself to one thing only: fulfilling the beauty aspirations of consumers around the world. Our purpose, to create the beauty that moves the world, defines our approach to beauty as essential, inclusive, ethical, generous and committed to social and environmental sustainability. With our broad portfolio of 37 international brands and ambitious sustainability commitments in our L’Oréal for the Future programme, we offer each and every person around the world the best in terms of quality, efficacy, safety, sincerity and responsibility, while celebrating beauty in its infinite plurality.
With more than 90,000 committed employees, a balanced geographical footprint and sales across all distribution networks (ecommerce, mass market, department stores, pharmacies, perfumeries, hair salons, branded and travel retail), in 2024 the Group generated sales amounting to 43.48 billion euros. With 21 research centres across 13 countries around the world and a dedicated Research and Innovation team of over 4,000 scientists and 8,000 Digital talents, L’Oréal is focused on inventing the future of beauty and becoming a Beauty Tech powerhouse.
In 2025, L’Oréal Groupe has been named the most innovative company in Europe by Fortune magazine, out of 300 companies, in a ranking spanning 21 countries and 16 industries in Europe.
More information on https://www.loreal.com/en/mediaroom
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