The Aveeno® Skin Health Startup Accelerator Pitch Competition, now in its second year, has been announced by the Aveeno® brand. Aveeno® recognises the power of Black female-identifying entrepreneurs in bringing breakthrough solutions for all skin and hair types through this initiative.
In conjunction with ESSENCE, Aveeno® has launched submissions for the 2022 Skin Health Startup Accelerator Pitch Competition. The program’s website, which is dedicated to helping create a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable skincare sector, provides Black female-identifying company owners with information and resources to help them grow their enterprises.
Aveeno® is looking for up-and-coming Black female-identifying entrepreneurs who have a product, brand, or technology that fits the skin or hair care needs of Black customers. The winner of this year’s Skin Health Startup Accelerator will earn $100,000 to help their firm as well as a trip to ESSENCE Fest, a high-profile event where the winners will be acknowledged. Hands-on business advice and mentorship from the best and brightest thought leaders in everything from package design, marketing, accountancy, and more will be included in the award.
The deadline to enter Aveeno®’s new competition is April 30, 2022.
In 2021, Aveeno® presented the Grand Prize to Dr. Isfahan Chambers-Harris, Founder of Alodia Hair CareTM, and the Runner-Up Prize to Ariane Turner, Founder of Look Good Live WellTM. Both women got cash to help them build their businesses, as well as continuous mentoring and a feature in ShopEssence, ESSENCE’s e-commerce portal.
These two beauty entrepreneurs took advantage of the competition’s resources, allowing Dr. Isfahan Chambers-Harris, Founder of Alodia Hair CareTM, to have her best year yet, tripling revenue year over year. Ariane Turner, Founder of Look Good Live WellTM, invested in a delicate rebranding to assist the ecosystem of Black-women owned businesses. This enabled Ariane to delve further into her customer psychographics in order to better connect with them. She was also able to use the funds to start the process of developing a proprietary blend of chemicals that is specifically designed to suit the demands of melanin-rich skin.
According to Steve Reis, Senior Brand Manager of Aveeno® at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc, “As a brand that began in humble beginnings, like many others before us, we feel an innate responsibility to pass on the support and guidance we received along the way to these inspiring Black women entrepreneurs who are working so hard to break into the industry. Dr. Isfahan Chambers-Harris and Ariane Turner are astute leaders with a clear vision for the type of change they want to see, and we are honoured to be assisting them in achieving their goals. We are fortunate that ESSENCE shares our goal, and we have great hopes for the second year of the Skin Health Startup Accelerator program’s continuing commitment to generating equal possibilities in the skincare business.”
Caroline Wanga, CEO of ESSENCE, stated, “ESSENCE is the unapologetic home for 31 million Black women who are ‘comfortable in their own skin.’ Another year of working with Aveeno® on the Skin Health Startup Accelerator Pitch Competition demonstrates the fair attention required to service Black skin health. Economic inclusion is a human right, according to ESSENCE. In addition to our broad range of services and products, we are devoted to guaranteeing Black entrepreneurial success and generational prosperity by providing Black firms with purpose, access, financing, and experience through our New Voices Fund and Foundation. I am excited to see how our ongoing collaboration will help to elevate the next generation of Black-owned skin health businesses.”
