L’Oréal Groupe has been named the most innovative company in Europe, in Fortune’s first-ever ranking of the continent’s 300 most forward-thinking businesses. This announcement was made today at VivaTech 2025, where Fortune, the global media company, unveiled its inaugural Europe’s Most Innovative Companies list in partnership with data specialist, Statista.

This ranking, spanning 21 countries and 16 industries, assesses innovation based on three key pillars: product innovation, process innovation, and innovation culture.  L'Oréal's top placement underscores its leadership in beauty tech, its steadfast commitment to scientific research, its creative marketing prowess, and its dedication to cultivating a future-oriented, inclusive, and entrepreneurial culture across its global teams.

"We are immensely proud to be recognized by Fortune as Europe's most innovative company,"said Nicolas Hieronimus, Chief Executive Officer of L'Oréal. "This prestigious recognition reinforces our conviction that innovation, fueled by science, technology, and creativity, is the best way to succeed on the world stage, but is also a testament to the incredible talent and dedication of our teams around the globe. Their unwavering passion, boldness, and entrepreneurial spirit have made this achievement possible."

The full Europe’s Most Innovative Companies 2025 list is available via this link.

From its very inception, L'Oréal has been driven by a deep-seated culture of innovation, a legacy initiated by its founder, Eugène Schueller, an entrepreneurial chemist who invented the world's first safe and effective hair dye back in 1907. This commitment to pushing boundaries extends far beyond the laboratory, encompassing not just groundbreaking product development but also pioneering advancements in marketing, social responsibility, and sustainability.

Recent Innovation highlights include:

Longevity:

- L’Oréal Longevity Integrative Science combinestechnology advances and skin expertise to move from corrective care to preventive care by targeting the root causes of biological aging and extending the skin’s cellular health span. L’Oréal’s Wheel of Longevity decodes skin biological aging and unlocks the secrets of nine interconnected hallmarks of aging using its proprietary Longevity AI Cloud™.

- Lancôme Cell BioPrint, created with NanoEntek, is a revolution in consumer skin intelligence rooted in the field of longevity science.  Winner of a CES 2025 Innovation award, it is a portable, lab-on-a-chip biological diagnostic device, which enables consumers to understand their skin's aging trajectory and gain insights into the skincare solutions that can reverse their skin’s biological age.

Novel Ingredients:

- Melasyl TM, a breakthrough molecule designed to address the localized pigmentation issues that lead to age spots and post-acne marks, with clinically demonstrated efficacy and safety across all skin tones.

- UVMUNE 400, its biggest suncare innovation in 30 years to effectively protect the skin against ultra-long UVA rays. With this major scientific breakthrough, L'Oréal helps preventing sun-induced deep skin damages, which is a major public health issue.

Augmented Services:

- L’Oréal Paris Beauty Genius, an agentic-AI powered all-in-one personal beauty assistant that offers its users personalized diagnostics and recommendations, enabling consumers to learn anything about beauty simply and easily.  Launched last year in the US, it’s already racked up over 400,000 conversations, and coming soon to WhatsApp.

-La Roche-Posay Spotscan+Coach has been developed with dermatologists and is the first acne coaching app that combines advanced AI skin analysis with personalized routines and emotional support. Through a partnership with Calm, the world’s leading mental wellness app, LRP Spotscan+Coach users will have access to guided meditations, breathing exercises, sleep tools and expert content to support stress reduction and holistic well-being, addressing the mental health impact of acne.

Augmented Devices:

- L’Oréal Professionnel  AirLight Pro, created with Zuvi, is a revolution in hair drying, made for both beauty professionals and consumers.  AirLight Pro combines air, heat, and for the first time, infrared light that directly targets water molecules, accelerating the water evaporation process and resulting in up to 21% faster drying, up to 55% more hydration for shinier, smoother hair, and up to 19% less energy consumption.

- L’Oréal Paris Colorsonic, named one of Time’s best inventions of the year, this lightweight, handheld device uses an innovative, mess-free process to mix hair color and apply hair color evenly, delivering consistent hair color results for consumers at home. It will be honored in the beauty tech category.

- L’Oréal Professionnel Water Saver, a specially designed showerhead that reduces water consumption in salons by 69%, with no compromise on the rinsing experience, which to date has saved over 530 million litres of water.

Augmented Marketing:

- CreAltech is L’Oreal’s beauty content creation lab, augmenting the creativity of our marketing and content teams with the power of generative AI. Combining a modular ecosystem of models, expertise, technologies, and partners - including NVIDIA, Google, Adobe and OMI - CreAltech empowers marketers to generate thousands of unique, on-brand images, texts, and videos for diverse platforms and global audiences. 

- New Codes of Beauty: Creator Economy L'Oréal Groupe and Meta partner on the New Codes of Beauty Creator Program to empower the next generation of 3D, AR, and AI creators and explore new creative frontiers in beauty. Our brands L'Oréal Paris, Lancôme, and La Roche-Posay are pioneering and embracing these new creative territories through collaborations with a squad of 50 creators adept at leveraging cutting-edge tools and techniques. Our goal is to unleash technological creativity in a rising creator economy. 

Social Innovation:

- ‘Share & Care’ Program, L’Oréal’s social innovation and employee benefits program, launched back in 2013 to ensure that all L’Oréal employees, anywhere in the world, enjoy social protection of the highest standards – including health, financial and workplace support, including areas such as cancer, domestic violence and psychological safety.