Rare Beauty Brands, the parent company behind Patchology and Dr. Dana, has partnered with American retailer J.C. Penney to bring opportunity and capital to Black and Brown female-identifying founders in the beauty industry with its relaunched beauty accelerator.

The Lift Beauty Accelerator, which has been rebranded this year, aims to empower female-identifying founders from underrepresented backgrounds and will offer five early-stage beauty brands 10,000 US dollars in funding, alongside practical resources, a network, and advice necessary “to fulfil their potential”.

The initiative, sponsored by Black Beauty Collective and Black Girl Ventures, is looking for Black and Brown female-identifying founded beauty brands located in the US that have between 10,000 and 1 million US dollars in annual revenue and are past the ideation phase with fully developed product or service, ready for customer or with existing customers.

Applications for the accelerator is open until July 18 and can be any beauty brand associated with skincare, hair care, colour cosmetics, nail care, fragrance, bath and body care, tools and accessories, or wellness.

Applications open for Rare Beauty Brands’ Lift Beauty Accelerator

Chris Hobson, chief executive of Rare Beauty Brands, said in a statement: “At Rare Beauty Brands, we are deeply passionate about the transformative power of entrepreneurship and have been privileged to host incubator programs over the past three years. This year, we are thrilled to introduce our newly rebranded initiative, Lift Beauty Accelerator.

“Working closely with past winners has been an incredible experience, and we are eagerly anticipating this year’s applicants. We are honoured to collaborate with JCPenney and other amazing partners in our mission to uplift underrepresented founders in the beauty industry.”

Winners will be announced in late September and will receive a minimum of 10,000 US dollars, an opportunity to pitch JCPenney for potential in-store or online product distribution, and one-year membership in the Black Beauty Collective and placement in Chicago and Los Angeles storefronts.

In addition, the five winning brands will receive personalised and practical mentorship from a team of experts from Rare Beauty Brands and their partners.

Leslie Roberson, founder and chief executive of Black Beauty Collective, added: “I am thankful to Rare Beauty Brands and JCPenney for their commitment to bridging the gap for diverse indie beauty brands. Through partnerships like these, legacy retailers like JCPenney are not only leading the charge to support diversity across the beauty industry but are also directly impacting the baseline of independent brand owners through our mission to scale and grow historically underrepresented brands.

“By partnering with Rare Beauty Brands and JCPenney, we can continue our commitment of diversifying the beauty industry by ensuring diverse beauty founders scale quickly and thrive in retail so they can reach their full potential.”