French beauty co. L’Oreal onboards 2 Indian startups for second accelerator cohort

French beauty giant L’Oreal has selected 13 companies from eight countries for the second cohort of its sustainability-focused L’AcceleratOR programme. The cohort features two Indian startups, Without and Nexus (Felis Leo Widgets). The program is supported by a Euro 100 million fund to identify, pilot, and scale technologies addressing challenges in climate, nature, and circularity.Founded in 2020 by Anish Malpani, Pune-based Without converts hard-to-recycle, flexible and multilayered plastic packaging into high-quality materials. It was a winner of the L’Oreal SAPMENA Big Bang Beauty Tech Innovation Program.Founded in 2019 by Nishita Baliarsingh and Nikita Baliarsingh, Bhubaneswar-based Nexus produces energy-storage batteries using agricultural waste.