Beiersdorf’s NX Nivea Accelerator Expands to China

Following the success of its NX Nivea Accelerator in Seoul, South Korea, Beiersdorf is expanding the program to Shanghai, China and has now selected the top 5 startups for the accelerator.

In June 2019, NX Nivea was launched as Beiersdorf's first global beauty startup accelerator in Korea. The accelerator program supports and develops indie brands and beauty tech startups which share Beiersdorf’s ambition to shape, create and deliver the future of skin care to consumers.

“Our goal is to become the leading beauty accelerator in Asia by 2022,” said Zhengrong Liu, member of the executive board of Beiersdorf for Greater China/Northeast Asia. “By teaming up with local innovators, we accelerate the process to identify and develop visionary beauty concepts, unlock growth potentials and win with skin care in line with Beiersdorf’s business strategy C.A.R.E.+.”

In order to jointly establish new brands on the market quickly and efficiently, Beiersdorf has signed a partnership agreement with China's largest B2C platform Tmall from the Alibaba Group to co-incubate Chinese startups. Existing skin care brands from Beiersdorf's portfolio such as Nivea, Eucerin and La Prairie are already represented on Tmall. 

For the NX program in Shanghai, Beiersdorf is focusing on collaborating with beauty startups from the areas of indie brands, beauty technology, personalization, and platform business models with a high degree of digitalization. In addition, Beiersdorf is particularly open to global indie brands in the skin care sector that want to enter the Chinese market and build their own local teams in Shanghai.

“We believe the expansion will create synergies between Beiersdorf and disruptive beauty startups in China thus further driving our innovation power in the region,” said Shirley Xue, GM Beiersdorf Northeast Asia.

After reviewing more than 100 candidates for the new accelerator program in Shanghai and a thorough evaluation of their business potential, innovativeness, and team capabilities, the NX jury has chosen the following startups to form the first batch:

• Lake Lab: A beauty brand generated on the skin care platform ‘You Look Good Today’ (C2h4) using extensive data and AI technology for product development based on consumer skin data and reviews.
• Basic Lab: Skin care brand focusing on no more than 12 ingredients in every product promoting the minimalistic skin care philosophy of simplified clean ingredients.
• 2XY: Genderless skin care brand inspired by ingredients extracted from nature.
• Turflan: Scientific skin care with high-potency products in cooperation with international research institutes.
• Moja: An indie brand specializing in pure high efficiency formulas for healing skin care.

Through the strategic partnership with Beiersdorf, the selected beauty startups benefit for six months from the company's global network of over 160 affiliates, more than 20,000 employees, and nearly 140 years of skin care expertise. In addition, Beiersdorf's new Innovation Center in Shanghai will support the startups in the areas of research and development, marketing and office space. Furthermore, the startups will receive exclusive access to the state-of-the-art laboratories, as well as intensive support and training.