Beauty entrepreneurs, here’s your chance to win up to $250,000 in grant money to help build your brand or take your business to the next level. Estée Lauder Companies has launched a new grant programme, The Catalysts, designed to support upcoming beauty creatives through financial backing as well as mentorship and project assistance from industry experts.

The grant, created by Estée Lauder’s New Incubation Ventures with support from TikTok, is open to all new brand founders, existing brand founders, and “creative storytellers” looking to launch a beauty-related project – think: a film, podcast, book etc. Two winners will be chosen from the applicants by a jury of experts including Michèle Lamy, Isamaya Ffrench, Eugene Souleiman, Hung Vanngo and Violet Chachki. They will then receive funding as well as mentorship and guidance through their journey. “This is not just about a check. This is about support from idea to launch to ensure founders have the team and expertise to fuel their vision,” says Shana Randhava, NIV’s senior vice president and a member of The Catalysts’ jury.

So what are the judges looking out for when it comes to selecting the winners? Randhava says passion, big thinking, unique consumer insights and breakthrough innovation. “Thousands of brands launch each year, but the ones that survive and thrive demonstrate many of these attributes,” she says. “The most successful new founders will challenge today’s standards to push the frontiers of beauty through innovative ideas and concepts that are disruptive, solve real consumer or community pains, and create a new market opportunity.”

Elements that could give applicants an edge include having a breakthrough product, technology or ingredient, Randhava says, or having a brand that will appeal to people across demographics, psychographics and geographies. “Disruptive engagement models in emerging channels, platforms and experiences,” will also help a project stand out. With Tiktok playing such a huge role in what beauty trends, brands and products are popular these days, the potential for virality will also be taken into consideration. “We are definitely interested in how founders and brands tell their stories to build a strong connection with their community and certainly one measure is potential virality and unique approaches on content and engagement,” explains Randhava.

Even for those applicants who don’t end up receiving any prize money, The Catalysts programme offers support through ten masterclasses which provide an overview of what it takes to build the next great brand. The sessions will cover topics such as finance, product development and manufacturing, branding and hiring.

“These bite-sized seminar style shorts see some of the industry’s most respected founders and voices (such as Alex Brownsell and Dom Bridges) give advice on what it takes to actually build a beauty business, warts and all,” says former Dazed Beauty editor-in-chief Nellie Eden, who developed the series alongside Sharmadean Reid MBE. “All the stuff you never get taught at art school basically!”

Applications for The Catalysts program are open here from now until August 4. The selected winners to be revealed at a final event in Paris in October 2024.