Coty’s tech tear continues with the launch of a program that will award start-ups as much as $100,000 for winning pitches on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Coty, which launched a Digital Accelerator in 2017 to connect it with external digital capabilities and start-ups, looks to accelerate the development of its digital capabilities. This latest move brings external start-ups into the mix.

The tech start-ups are encouraged to share their latest innovations at Coty’s quarterly Digital Accelerator Summit, to be held on March 27 and March 28 in both London and New York City, by March 12. Coty will then select up to eight start-ups to present their ideas at its summit. In parallel, there will be a prize fund of up to $100,000, with prizes of $10,000 to $50,000 awarded based on factors including brand alignment and growth impact judged by a panel of Coty digital experts.

Coty’s expertise in partnerships includes its acquisitions of Beamly and ghd, its partnership with Younique and its new connections via its relationship with Zenith, its media agency of record. Earlier this month Coty announced a partnership with Holition, which launched its first app-free Augmented Reality (AR) experience exclusively for CoverGirl.

“This is an indication of how we’d like to bring disruptive new approaches to the market in partnership with unique new players in AI, AR, voice and other rapidly growing technologies,” said Fred Gerantabee, Coty’s VP of Digital Innovation. “We intend to foster these relationships and look forward to more examples like this coming out of our Digital Accelerator summits.”

Upcoming summit themes are expected to include AR, voice and 3D printing.