L’ORÉAL WELCOMES TWO INDIAN STARTUPS TO THE SECOND COHORT OF ITS FLAGSHIP L’ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME FOR BREAKTHROUGH SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

L’Oréal, the world’s leading beauty company, today named its second cohort of 13 pioneering companies from eight countries selected to join the group’s flagship sustainable innovation programme, L’AcceleratOR, including two companies from India.  Backed by a €100 million fund, the global initiative identifies, pilots, and scales high-impact technologies addressing urgent challenges across climate, nature, and circularity.

Representing India in the new cohort are:

• Without: A climate-tech pioneer advancing circular technology to recycle hard-to-recycle flexible packaging into durable materials. Without was previously recognized as a winner in the L’Oréal SAPMENA Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program.
• Nexus [Felis Leo Widgets]: An innovator developing circular technology to produce energy-storage batteries utilizing agricultural waste.

These 13 partners will enter an intensive acceleration phase led by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) innovation team, focusing on pilot readiness. They will also have the opportunity to gain access to L’Oréal’s global resources to launch 6-to-9-months pilot projects and potentially have their solutions scaled across the Group’s international operations.

“We are working to unlock new frontiers in the beauty industry through pioneering solutions,” said Ezgi Barcenas, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer at L’Oréal. “This second L’AcceleratOR cohort reflects our ambition to bring together entrepreneurial ingenuity, scientific progress and the global reach of L’Oréal to help scale breakthrough innovations.”

Jacques Lebel, Managing Director, L’Oréal India, said: “India’s startup ecosystem is now the third largest in the world, and what continues to impress me is how fearlessly Indian entrepreneurs tackle complex, structural challenges, from agricultural residue to flexible packaging. Sustainability must be practical, scalable, and grounded in real-world impact. Combining that local entrepreneurial ingenuity with L’Oréal’s scientific rigour and global footprint is our winning formula. We are proud to see Indian minds taking centre stage to shape more circular solutions, not just for this market, but for the world.”

Building on the success of its first cohort, the second edition of the L’AcceleratOR programme features an expanded geographical footprint and a broader range of sustainability challenges, including its first-ever water-technology selection.

As we welcome this second cohort, we are also thrilled to unveil our new docuseries, Entering L’AcceleratOR, which chronicles the journey of three of our inaugural cohort of change makers. This series takes viewers behind the scenes to see how these startups and our internal teams have worked together to pilot breakthrough solutions for commercialization. You can watch the first episode and follow the full series on our L’Oréal YouTube Channel

For more information to follow the progress of these innovators, and to be informed about the launch of our next call for application, visit: https://www.loreal.com/en/commitments-and-responsibilities/for-the-planet/accelerator/.

Meet the Rest of the 13 Change Makers:

Next-Generation Packaging & Materials

• Arda Biomaterials (UK): Creating a plant-based leather alternative for premium materials.
• Bormioli Luigi (Italy): Reinventing ultra-light and resistant glass packaging.
• Auressens (France): Creating metal-free, recyclable reflective pigments for packaging.
• Newlight Technologies, Inc. (USA): Converting methane into packaging.

Innovative ingredients & Formulas

• Bioweg (Germany): Harnessing the power of precision fermentation for new raw materials
• Envision Energy (China): Developing green ammonia for hair colorants from renewable energy.

Advanced industrial processes

• Without (India): Recycling technology for hard-to-recycle flexible packaging
• HCpect (China): Treating plastic waste through a novel chemical recycling technology.
• MacroCycle (USA): Recycling Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) through a low-carbon solution.
• Nexus [Felis Leo Widgets] (India): Producing batteries using agricultural waste through a circular technology.
• Upheat Solutions Oy (Finland): Bringing energy efficiency with novel industrial heat pumps.
• Laminar (USA): Enhancing industrial water management through intelligent sensor technology to reduce overall usage.

Data intelligence.

• Waterplan (USA): Addressing water and biodiversity risks to drive local action through an AI-native platform.