Meta, L’Oréal, and French business school HEC Paris are joining hands to launch a startup acceleration program to boost creativity in the metaverse.
The program will support at least five startups specializing in mixed reality, avatar creation, portability in user experience, 3D production, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), token economy, or other domains related to the metaverse and Web3. Startups do not have to be related to the beauty industry specifically.
It will be located in the Meta space within Station F, which is in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. It is considered the world’s most extensive startup campus. Applications for the same are open until 20 November.
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A jury of HEC, Meta, and L’Oréal members, along with investors, will select the startups in December. The program will run from January 2023 to June 2023. Selected applicants will be offered mentorship along with access to investors and experts.
Some experts believe the hype around NFTs and Web3 is waning following the crypto crash earlier this year. However, luxury, beauty, and fashion brands continue to invest in new projects.
L’Oréal also plans to extend its existing technologies to the new space. In 2018, L’Oréal acquired the AR beauty company Modiface. In 2021, L’Oréal and Meta announced a platform integration that utilized Modiface to bring AR-powered makeup try-ons to the social media platform Instagram. The companies were convinced that acquiring Modiface would be a competitive advantage when they entered Web3 and the metaverse.
