L'Oreal's venture capital fund, BOLD, invests in Digital Village, a US startup focused on Metaverse and NFT marketplace
January 13, 2023 at 09:47 am EST
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Clichy - L'Oreal's corporate venture capital fund BOLD (Business Opportunities for L'Oreal Development) announces a minority investment in US-based startup, Digital Village, a metaverse-as-a-service platform and NFT marketplace for brands, creators, and communities.
This move marks the first venture capital investment by L'Oreal in the metaverse & Web3 space. This investment is also the first made by BOLD's Female Founders initiative launched in 2022.
Led by an international team spanning the US, Europe, and Asia, Digital Village offers new, scalable technologies for the creation and interaction of digital identities and assets in virtual worlds. The company was founded in 2021 by Evelyn Mora, former digital & sustainability consultant for leading brands and founder of the sustainability-focused and fully digital Helsinki Fashion Week. Digital Village's Advisory Board counts founders and top executives from PANGAIA, The Sandbox, and Wave.
'As L'Oreal continues to explore and define what beauty means in Web3, we seek to work with the most promising startups who adhere to the highest possible visual and technical standards. We are excited to be partnering with Digital Village, whose solutions will be powerful enablers for our brands and whose ideals of sustainability, accessibility, and interoperability in the metaverse or Web3 are ones we share,' said Camille Kroely, Chief Metaverse & Web3 Officer at L'Oreal.
'We are excited to be backed by BOLD and look forward to collaborating with L'Oreal to revolutionize the beauty industry through the creation of cutting-edge virtual experiences for L'Oreal's renowned brands. Together, we are setting the bar for beauty in the metaverse and Web3, pushing the boundaries of what is possible and setting a new standard for the industry to follow,' said Evelyn MORA, Founder and CEO of Digital Village.
The Venture Reality Fund (VR Fund), a Silicon Valley-based tech VC firm specialized in VR and AR, co-leads this Seed financing round in Digital Village alongside BOLD.
About L'Oreal
For over 110 years, L'Oreal, the world's leading beauty player, has devoted itself to one thing only: fulfilling the beauty aspirations of consumers around the world. Our purpose, to create the beauty that moves the world, defines our approach to beauty as inclusive, ethical, generous and committed to social and environmental sustainability. With our broad portfolio of 35 international brands and ambitious sustainability commitments in our L'Oreal for the Future programme, we offer each and every person around the world the best in terms of quality, efficacy, safety, sincerity and responsibility, while celebrating beauty in its infinite plurality.
With 85,400 committed employees, a balanced geographical footprint and sales across all distribution networks (e-commerce, mass market, department stores, pharmacies, hair salons, branded and travel retail), in 2021 the Group generated sales amounting to 32.28 billion euros. With 20 research centers across 11 countries around the world and a dedicated Research and Innovation team of over 4,000 scientists and 3,000 tech professionals, L'Oreal is focused on inventing the future of beauty and becoming a Beauty Tech powerhouse.
L'Oréal is the world leading cosmetic group. The group offers skincare products (39.9% of sales), makeup products (19.7%), haircare products (15.4%), fragrances (12.6%), hair colouring products (8.3%) and other (4,1%). Net sales break down by family of products as follows:
- consumer cosmetics (36.9%): L'Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New York, NYX Professional Makeup, Essie Niely, Dark and Lovely, Mixa, MG and Carol's Daughter brands;
- luxury cosmetics (36.2%): Lancôme, Kiehl's, Giorgio Armani Beauty, Yves Saint Laurent Beauté, Biotherm, Helena Rubinstein, Shu Uemura, IT Cosmetics, Urban Decay, Ralph Lauren, Mugler, Viktor&Rolf, Valentino, Azzaro, Prada, Takami, A?sop, etc.;
- active cosmetics (15,6%): La Roche-Posay, Vichy, CeraVe, SkinCeuticals, Skinbetter Science, etc.;
- professional products (11,3%): L'Oréal Professionnel, Kérastase, Redken, Matrix and PureOlogy brands.
Products are marketed through mass distribution and distance selling, selective distribution, hair salons and pharmacies.
At the end of 2023, L'Oréal has 37 production sites worldwide.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Europe (31.6%), North America (27%), North Asia (25.9%), Asia/Pacific/Middle East/Africa (8.4%) and Latin America (7.1%).
L'ORÉAL 
