NEW YORK & MUMBAI, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 8, 2025--
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) announced yesterday the winners of BEAUTY&YOU India 2025. This year’s program, supported by the Government of India’s Startup India and launch partner Nykaa, highlighted the emerging talent reimagining the future of beauty in India.
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Stéphane de La Faverie, President and CEO, The Estée Lauder Companies said: “When we launched BEAUTY&YOU, our vision was simple yet powerful — to discover and support visionary entrepreneurs transforming India’s beauty landscape. This year’s winners reflect the incredible creativity, ambition, and innovation shaping one of the world’s most dynamic markets. The Estée Lauder Companies is proud to champion these bold new entrepreneurs who are redefining the future of beauty in India and beyond.”
Since its launch in 2022, the company’s BEAUTY&YOU India program has grown into one of the most recognized platforms for beauty entrepreneurship in India. Over the past four application cycles, it has attracted nearly 2,500 applications from 150+ cities across India and around the world, with the majority from women entrepreneurs.
The 2025 winners, named across four categories, were selected for their bold ideas and innovative products that reflect the dynamism of India’s beauty ecosystem—from climate-tailored products to breakthrough encapsulation technology and inclusive makeup. Each will receive funding, along with mentorship from global experts, national visibility through Startup India, and brand-building and distribution support from Nykaa.
2025 BEAUTY&YOU India Winners
The 2025 program debuted the BEAUTY&YOU Visionary Women’s Award, presented by The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) and Startup India. The award builds upon a first-of-its-kind partnership between ELC and Startup India, formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of India’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), reflecting a shared commitment to supporting Indian entrepreneurs and women-led startups.
Nadine Graf, President of EMEA, UK & Ireland, and Emerging Markets at The Estée Lauder Companies, said: “The winners of BEAUTY&YOU India 2025 reflect the entrepreneurial spirit at the heart of The Estée Lauder Companies. India continues to inspire us—not only as a dynamic and fast-growing beauty market, but as a source of creativity and bold ideas. Every journey begins with a vision and a dream, and this program is about empowering founders to turn those into reality. I am especially proud of the new Visionary Women’s Award, which celebrates the ambition, ingenuity, and leadership of women founders.”
Shri Sanjiv Singh, Joint Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, added: “Our partnership with Estée Lauder for BEAUTY&YOU India reflects a shared commitment to strengthening India’s startup ecosystem and fostering innovation across sectors. This year’s introduction of the Visionary Women’s Award in collaboration with Startup India is particularly meaningful, celebrating the women whose ideas and leadership continue to redefine entrepreneurship. My warm congratulations to all the winners as they carry Bharat’s spirit of innovation to the world.”
The 2025 finalists were evaluated by an esteemed jury of beauty and business leaders including Akhil Shrivastava, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, The Estée Lauder Companies; Rohan Vaziralli, General Manager, The Estée Lauder Companies, India; Nivruti Rai, CEO, Invest India; Katrina Kaif, Actor and Co-Founder, Kay Beauty; and Anchit Nayar, Executive Director & CEO, Nykaa Beauty. The final event featured The Estée Lauder Companies’ Stéphane de La Faverie, President & CEO; William P. Lauder, Chair, Board of Directors; and Nadine Graf, President, EMEA, UK&I, and Emerging Markets; as well as Nykaa’s Falguni Nayar, Chairperson, MD& CEO.
Rohan Vaziralli, General Manager India, The Estée Lauder Companies, India said: “For me, the power of BEAUTY&YOU lies in unlocking possibilities – for entrepreneurs, consumers, and the broader beauty ecosystem – as we continue to build and imagine new futures together. The founders we celebrated tonight are scaling with ambition, setting new standards for Indian beauty on the world stage, and proving that India will be central to defining beauty’s next chapter.”
Anchit Nayar, Executive Director & CEO of Nykaa Beauty said: “As India’s leading beauty destination, Nykaa has been at the forefront of building the country’s beauty ecosystem—from discovery and consumer insights to digital storytelling and omnichannel retail. Through our partnership with The Estée Lauder Companies on BEAUTY&YOU India, we’re extending that ecosystem to nurture early-stage founders with the tools, visibility, and guidance they need to scale. This initiative reflects our shared commitment to empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs who will define the future of Indian beauty, both at home and on the global stage.”
BEAUTY&YOU India celebrates the creativity and vision of founders who are reshaping what beauty can mean for consumers in India and beyond. Alumni have gone on to launch new products, secure venture capital, build partnerships with leading retailers, and gain national attention on platforms like Shark Tank India, reinforcing the program’s role as a driver of industry transformation.
For more information, visit www.beautyandyouawards.com.
About BEAUTY&YOU India
Created by The Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures, BEAUTY&YOU India aims to discover, propel, and support the next generation of India-focused beauty entrepreneurs. Launched in 2022, the program offers financial support, mentorship, and strategic guidance to entrepreneurs shaping the future of beauty in India, helping them achieve scale and global relevance.
About The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is one of the world’s leading manufacturers, marketers, and sellers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products, and is a steward of luxury and prestige brands globally. The company’s products are sold in approximately 150 countries and territories under brand names including: Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, M·A·C, La Mer, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin Paris, TOM FORD, Smashbox, AERIN Beauty, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, GLAMGLOW, KILIAN PARIS, Too Faced, Dr.Jart+, the DECIEM family of brands, including The Ordinary and NIOD, and BALMAIN Beauty.
From L to R: Jaspreet Singh Gulati, Founder & Director, HiTech Formulations; Aparna Saxena, Founder & CEO, Antinorm; Stéphane de La Faverie, President & CEO, The Estée Lauder Companies; Harsha Soundararajan, Founder, Mimiq; Khanak Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO, Sohrai Beauty; and Rohan Vaziralli, General Manager, The Estée Lauder Companies India.
BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Colombians milled into voting stations on Sunday in the first round of the South American nation’s presidential election, choosing between candidates with radically diverging visions for the future of peace in a country haunted by decades of armed conflict.
The vote, seen as a referendum on outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s policies, comes 10 years after Colombia signed an historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
That agreement offered hope to break the nation out of a vicious cycle of fighting between rebel groups and the government but violence has roared back since then, coming to a head in the lead-up to the presidential vote. Criminal groups have increasingly launched drone strikes, armed attacks have plagued the race and last June, 39-year-old politician and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay was fatally shot at a political rally.
In a country where the fight for peace has long been a part of the political ethos, the question of how to address the conflict is once again dividing the country.
The vote is slated to send a message to Latin America at a time voters are increasingly ditching leaders that pitched progressive policies, like providing opportunities to youths and rooting out corruption, to solve security ails, turning instead to heavy-handed security crackdowns like El Salvador's. It also comes as the Trump administration is placing renewed pressure on the region.
“Today's election isn't just important for us, it's important for all of Latin America,” said Juan Acevedo, a 62-year-old sociologist walking out of a voting station in Colombia's capital on Sunday morning. “Whoever wins here will suggest to the region if progressive policies will continue or if things are going to return to the right.”
There are 11 candidates running for president, but the election has basically turned into a three-horse race.
Senator and peace-builder Ivan Cepeda — a Petro ally — has led the polls and promises to carry on with Petro's “total peace” initiative to negotiate with the country’s remaining rebel groups and sign peace agreements with them in an effort to resolve the persistent crisis.
While the peace plan has largely failed as criminals have taken advantage of ceasefires with the government, Cepeda and Petro have maintained strong support among many because of progressive policies pushed forward under Petro, such as boosting the minimum wage.
Running against Cepeda are Abelardo de la Espriella and Paloma Valencia, who have vowed to come down on armed groups with a heavier hand.
De la Espriella — a bombastic lawyer known as “The Tiger” — has particularly gained traction among voters in recent weeks for pitching himself as an outsider keen on emulating the heavy-handed tactics used in El Salvador’s war on gangs, which sharply reduced gang violence but fueled accusations of human rights abuses.
Valencia is considered the political protege of Colombia's former president and strongman Álvaro Uribe, who governed from 2002 to 2010 with strong support from the United States and whose government beat back FARC rebels in an offensive that took a massive civilian toll.
Both de la Espriella and Valencia have touted their affinity for U.S. President Donald Trump even as he has taken a more aggressive stance toward Latin America than any U.S. president in decades and has pressured nations like Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico to more forcefully crack down on criminal groups.
If no candidate wins at least 50% of the vote — something extremely rare in Colombia — the two top vote-getters will face a runoff in June.
Maria Eugenia, a 57-year-old seamstress who was stitching a pair of jeans on Friday in downtown Bogotá, Colombia's capital, said she welcomed an all-out offensive on an expanding slate of criminal groups, regardless of the human cost.
While she approved of Petro’s pushes to improve the country's medical infrastructure, she said she was voting for de la Espriella because violence in rural areas of the country has gotten out of hand. She said negotiating peace pacts was simply “rewarding” armed groups.
“Of course, whenever you come down with a heavy hand, there’s always going to be debate,” she said. “But some people are going to have to fall to clean up what needs to be cleaned.”
Others, like Acevedo, the sociologist strolling out of a polling station on Sunday with packs of other voters, said a security crackdown like the one promoted by de la Espriella would only be returning to past military campaigns that he said only reinforced Colombia's cycle of violence.
He said he planned to vote for Cepeda, adding that while the government hasn't done a perfect job — failing to pass ambitious reforms and follow through on promises to reduce violence — it was better to continue pushing forward with their political coalition's efforts to take a different approach in addressing the country's violence.
He added that his main critique of Petro's administration was the power grabs made by criminal groups as they negotiated with the government. He said he hoped that if Cepeda won, he would strike a better balance between negotiating peace and maintaining control over those groups.
“We're a country that has lived through 60 years of conflict,” Acevedo said. “The danger here is that we return to the times where everyone is saying that the only way to solve our problems is with bullets and more war.”
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Voters check polling information during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
President Gustavo Petro shows a ballot during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Voters line up at a polling station during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement depart a polling station after voting during the presidential election in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Soldiers patrol as voters arrive at a polling station during the presidential election in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Electoral workers set up a voting center in preparation for Sunday's presidential election in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A man rides his motorcycle past the ruins of homes destroyed five months earlier in an attack by dissidents of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in Buenos Aires, Cauca, Colombia, Wednesday, May 20, 2026.(AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)
Presidential candidate Sen. Paloma Valencia of the Democratic Center party waves supporters during a campaign rally in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement and his running mate Jose Manuel Restrepo, left, raise their fit from behind a bullet proof booth during a campaign rally in Barranquilla, Colombia, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Sen. Ivan Cepeda, presidential candidate of the ruling Historic Pact coalition, speaks to supporters during a campaign rally in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
