Natura opens name for and seeks early-stage feminine wellness startups

Company is looking for entrepreneurs and early-stage startups who want to get ideas off the ground; companies with products or services linked to the women’s well-being market can apply

THE nature opens this Thursday (03) registration for its open innovation challenge, the Natura Innovation Challenge – Well-being. The proposal is to find early-stage startups that work in the well-being and mental health segment for women.

The program, conducted in partnership with the corporate innovation company The Bakerypromise accelerate three industry startups, helping entrepreneurs to actually launch their companies and get their ideas off the ground. The search is for innovative solutions in this segment.

What is the challenge launched by Natura

The challenge proposed for the call is to “how to promote, in a scalable way, physical and mental well-being in women’s routine, improving women’s relationship with themselves and their bodies”.

how the program works

The Natura Innovation Challenge – Bem-Estar will take place in a hybrid format, with online interactions and face-to-face meetings, depending on the needs of each team. The only requirement, however, is compliance with a weekly workload of 20 hours.

On December 8, there will be a face-to-face meeting at Natura’s headquarters in Cajamar, São Paulo’s metropolitan region. The meeting will formalize the beginning of the process, which will continue until March 2023.

According to José Manuel da Silva, Vice President of New Business at Natura &Co Latin America, the company’s long-standing performance with open innovation contributes to the creation of solutions that impact the daily lives of customers and also the thousands of brand beauty. “We have a great foundation in this ecosystem to create solutions to business challenges and offer disruptive services and products that generate a positive impact for people and the environment. We are confident that the partnership with The Bakery will connect us to solutions of different natures and help us to integrate proposals that actually add value to our network of relationships”, he says.

Throughout the process, conducted by The Bakery, teams or startups will have access to business mentorships, support for innovation methodologies and sessions on entrepreneurship and support tools for executing their ideas.

The creation of solutions should follow one of the three pillars:

• Self knowledge
  Products and services that bring more knowledge of the individual about himself to promote mental well-being;
• body in rhythm
  Services and products related to practices, services and products that improve and promote healthy eating, sleep quality, stress reduction, physical activities and relaxation breaks;
• Self esteem
  Activities typically associated with self-image to guide and support the female audience in their self-discovery processes, aiming to work on mental blocks and old habits.

At the end of the process, the expectation is that the teams will have their ideas structured and ready to go to the market, being able to receive up to 150,000 reais to create their MVPs (minimum viable product). In addition, in a second phase, startups can receive a seed capital contribution of up to R$ 1.5 million for acceleration.

“Two years ago, this new path for the creation of new businesses was being managed by us, in partnership with Natura. In 2021, we piloted the model and now we are putting into practice everything we have developed together”, says Felipe Novaes, partner and co-founder of The Bakery.

How to participate

to participate in Natura Innovation Challenge, it is necessary that the registered companies have women and blacks on their board of founders and partners. The idea is to meet requirements related to diversity and inclusion, important pillars for Natura — according to the company itself.

In addition, the requirement is also for complementary profiles among the members of the three teams or startups. Priority will be given to entrepreneurs with skills related to Business, Technology and Product, with the Business profile responsible for the strategic and relationship vision for the creation of partnerships with stakeholders; the technology one should have knowledge of tools and resources for the creation of the product or service and the product linked to the areas of user experience and design.

The teams or startups that apply must be composed of at least two founders or co-founders who must participate in all stages.

Natura also draws attention to the exclusive participation of businesses that are already born with the intention of becoming B companies, that is, that generate a positive impact on society, and that wish to obtain this certification in the future.

Applications can be made until November 25th at website on the initiative.

Source: Exam