German beauty giant Beiersdorf, has launched a program to empower beauty disruptors in South Korea.
The project has been designed to foster the next generation of Korean beauty startups in Seoul's Hongdae district, whose demographic is considered youthful and cool.
Sponsored predominately by Nivea, selected start-ups from the country will receive exclusive access to Beiersdorf’s global market reach and its staff's experience in the industry. This will include a team that's dedicated to collaborating and accelerating the startups including marketing, sales, digital, supply chain and R&D experts.
“At Beiersdorf, we believe in partnership. Our foundation and global success is based on close collaboration with partners in the skin care market,” said Beiersdorf Korea general manager Endrik Hasemann.
“Today, we want to help Korean entrepreneurs build their ideas and open the doors to the global market.”
The program has been created in partnership with co-working space WeWork, which will house the innovation hub in Hongdae.
Beiersdorf isn't the first big beauty company to open a start-up incubator. Back in September, L'Occitane opened an innovation studio in Marseille, France, while Puig recently launched Puig Futures, a collaboration platform that focuses on developing new business models, partnerships and taking a minority stake in third party enterprises.
