L’Oréal USA has announced the winners of its 2019 Women in Digital NEXT Generation Awards, a program that aims to support female leaders that are building technology with the potential to revolutionize the beauty industry.

The three winners are Mandi Nyambi and Lanya Olmsted, Co-founders of Baalm, an online community for beauty; Lisha Li, Founder of Rosebud AI, technology that allows users to virtually try-on make-up, hair styles and clothes from a social media photo; and Alyssa Min and Sunny Kim, Co-founders of Seknd, a smart beauty discovery platform for personalized product recommendations. Each winner will receive a funding grant of $25,000.

The beauty giant has this year increased its efforts to help early-stage entrepreneurs, having launched the inclusive, virtual Women In Digital community on the Alice platform. Available all year round, it will be a resource for participants across the U.S.

Rachel Weiss, VP of Strategic Growth and Open Innovation at L’Oréal USA, “This year we received over 450 nominations, representing a diverse group of women from all over the country. Narrowing this down was a tremendous challenge for our teams and judges, as we saw so many innovative early-stage companies founded by women whom I expect will all have an impact on the future of this industry.
“Although the landscape has changed quite a bit in the past seven years, we know there are still challenges for female founders. We are really honored to have the opportunity to help these entrepreneurs kick-start their businesses.”