Sephora celebrates the Accelerate Program’s five-year anniversary with the announcement of the 2020 Cohort. This year marks the program’s achievement of its goal to support 50 women-led businesses by 2020.
 
The most diverse cohort to-date, this year’s program features two new global territories, Germany and Singapore, totaling 10 countries this year. The programming remains focused on guiding founders on their journey of achieving individual business goals through a multi-month program led by Sephora executives including but not limited to mentorship, marketing stewardship, networking, social media training, growth plans and funding strategy planning.
 
Some of the program’s key milestones include more than $850K in grants and funding to participating founders, with funds going towards things like fulfilling purchase orders, purchasing inventory, scaling operations and new hires, assisted every merchandising brand in the program with securing space in a major retailer, if not within Sephora, and the launch of seven new beauty brands at Sephora stores across the world, including LXMI, Virtuvi, Skylar, The 7 Virtues, Ahal, AloeLab and Ho Karan. 
 
 “Our goal with the Sephora Accelerate program was to not only help 50+ high-potential, women-led businesses get their big break, but to also create a lasting and sustainable community for all those involved to benefit from long after their participation in the program,” said Corrie Conrad, Vice President, Sephora Stands (D&I, Social Impact, and Sustainability) for Sephora. “We are proud of what this program has accomplished in five short years, from helping dozens of individual businesses thrive, to creating personal and professional connections and education for all. The program is ever-expanding, and with brands from Germany and Singapore on board for the first time this year, we look forward to building an even richer and more diverse experience now and into the future.”