Frequently Asked Questions

Our Beauty & Personal Care division is a €20 billion business, home to some of the world’s most loved brands such as Dove, Axe, TRESemme and Love Beauty and Planet. This challenge will be spearheaded by our Chief R&D Officer, Richard Slater, and his leadership team.

This is a unique opportunity to present your company to a panel of senior executives and key decision makers at one of the world’s leading companies. We are committed and ready to partner with those companies that can help us accelerate our journey into more sustainable beauty. Through this process we will also be looking to identify scaleups and startups who share our Positive Beauty for People and Planet vision and support our mission.

As a starting point, we are looking for partners with the ability to deliver in one or more of our priority markets of USA, India, China, UK, Brazil, and Indonesia.

Shortlisted companies will present to a panel of senior executives in our Beauty & Personal Care division the week of May 23rd in a virtual event. Don’t worry, you will have plenty of opportunities to ask questions before you present, and we’ll help you prepare to make sure you put your best foot forward!

This is our second Challenge. At the end of last year, we launched our first Challenge which targeted Social Commerce as we set to find revolutionary partners in the world of livestream commerce, shoppable media, group buying and gaming commerce.

274 startups and scaleups applied to get involved, and a panel of Unilever experts shortlisted the entries down to 33 brilliant candidates, from seed-stage through to billion-dollar businesses, and from all corners of the globe.

Our first live event in November saw five of these innovators present to our panel – a group of senior leaders, brand and category leads who are looking to level up in the social commerce space.

Our panel (and the hundreds in attendance of the virtual event) heard great pitches showcasing impressive tech and smart solutions, and we are now working to form partnerships and kick off pilot projects: accelerating our consumer experiences through open innovation and bringing our Positive Beauty strategy to life. In fact, this has stimulated dozens of pilot discussions across our entire Beauty and Personal Care business.

Thanks to all 33 startups for their participation. We are excited to share highlights from the five companies who were invited to pitch:

Firework is fast approaching Unicorn status and is a definite rocket ship to watch. This California-founded livestream-enabler is already making waves in the sector, allowing brands to create short, shoppable videos and host engaging, responsive livestream events embedded into websites.

Playrcart is a UK-born global, multi-format, transactional ad solution that enables consumers to make a purchase within an ad, at the moment of intent. This truly shoppable media enables brands to convert their digital marketing assets into instantly transactable storefronts to boost advertising interaction and sales for global brands.

inSTREAMLY, based in Poland with a global reach, specialises in connecting brands with micro-influencers in the gaming live streaming sector, and it offers brands an opportunity to appear inside streams, or even react to the outcome of a streamed game, to reach new audiences.

Avana Indonesia based AVANA, is an end-to-end social commerce platform, enabling brands and resellers to sell across multiple platforms while managing operations and inventory through a centralised dashboard. Although early stage, AVANA has impressed our team and is well placed to deliver end-to-end capabilities across South East Asia.

Anzu Headquartered in Israel, Anzu positions itself as the world's most advanced in-game advertising solution. Operating across mobile, PC, console, and Roblox, Anzu's technology blends ads directly into video games and brings real-time analytics and existing digital industry standards in-game.

Many of our brands and categories are exploring pilots and experiments with shortlisted startups and scaleups. We can’t wait to share more!

We have purposefully designed the application process, so you don't have to share any sensitive information with us and encourage you not to disclose anything that you’re not comfortable sharing.

We have aimed to provide a simple application process, with no sharing of confidential information and the option to use standardised materials wherever possible. Sharing your standard pitch deck is perfectly acceptable, and there is no need to make a video demo - uploading this is optional.

All shortlisted companies will be presenting virtually to accommodate companies across different geographies and time zones.

The “prize” is the opportunity to partner and pilot with Unilever. The details of this agreement will be defined between the finalists and Unilever team after the challenge. This is not an equity investment prize. A commercial partnership with Unilever is possible depending on your stage and readiness.

Every relationship is unique, so if technical support is needed then we are open to having these conversations if you are successful at the showcase stage.

Each brand has its own strategy and there has been good traction and adoption of Unilever’s biodegradability and sustainability goals across the Haircare and Skincare brands. In general, every department is on the same trajectory within Beauty & Personal Care, so there are opportunities across our portfolio.

No, we recommend continuing as many conversations as possible. The Biodegradable & Sustainable Cosmetic Ingredients showcase will put you in front of a different and potentially a more senior team.