Sephora Accelerate: 8 BIPOC Brands for the Future

Sephora has announced its eight brands that will be included in the 2024 Sephora Accelerate program, which each year focuses on building a community around several brands of the companies choosing. This will be the ninth year of the program that was started in 2016.

The program was originally created to focus on innovative beauty brands, but in 2021 the program was altered to address brands run by BIPOC individuals. Each and every year, the program takes the selected brands and educates them over six months involving grants, merchandising support, mentorship, and access to inventors across the industry. 25 brands and their founders have completed this program and ten of them are now sold in Sephora stores and online.

Something that was new this last cycle was a personalized advisory team dedicated to helping the specialized interests of the brand. Each time includes a financial expert, a founder who has a Sephora sold brand, and a legacy partner from the beauty industry.

There are a few requirements to become eligible for the accelerate program. The brand must be based in North America and at least co-founded by someone over 18. The brand must be in its early stages and not widely produced and distributed. Sephora will evaluate the vision, innovation, and product(s) the brand has to offer. They need to make sure there is potential for the brand, especially if they haven’t fully launched a range of products yet.

The company selected eight brands out of a record-breaking 800 applicants for the 2024 run of the program, covering a variety of beauty products from jazzy perfume to miracle hair oil. The brands are Sienna Naturals, Abi Amé, Indē Wild, Banuskin, Harlem Perfume Co., Maed Beauty, Soft Rows, and Katini Skin.

Throughout the next eight days, we will be covering and diving into each of these brands!