Maesa’s incubator picks three beauty startups for 2027 class
The beauty accelerator program awarded $35,000 grants to founders of a sun-care brand, a K-beauty hand sanitizer, and press-on nails for kids.
Maesa, a beauty company that incubates and grows emerging brands, has selected three early-stage companies for the 2027 class of its Maesa Magic Incubator, a program designed to support next-generation founders from underrepresented communities. The three recipients—BEAME, gemi, and Sugar Standard—will share $105,000 in grant funding, along with mentorship, educational programming and access to an advisory board of industry veterans.
According to Maesa CEO Piyush Jain, the incoming founders “stood out not only for the strength of their ideas, but for the passion and conviction they bring to building their businesses.”
The three brands
gemi, founded by Hau Yeung and Erin Choi, brings Korean beauty skincare into hand sanitizer form. The product pairs facial-grade serum ingredients with fragrances developed by a master perfumer, and the brand said it eliminates 99.99 percent of common germs while nourishing skin.
Sugar Standard, founded by Monique Claiborne Cardwell, creates press-on nails targeting children and pre-teens. The sets combine on-trend designs with three-dimensional details and quick application, enabling young consumers to experiment with nail art without salon visits, mess or damage to natural nails.
Program structure and support
Each founder identifies a primary and secondary challenge area—specific obstacles they face—that will shape their mentoring relationship with Maesa staff and outside experts throughout the program. This framework allows the company to tailor guidance to where each founder stands in their business arc.
Beyond the grants, participants receive hands-on mentoring from Maesa leadership and industry specialists, custom-designed learning tracks, and conversations with beauty and consumer-industry leaders. The class will also attend an executive education session at the Harvard Faculty Club on shifting consumer behavior, and participate in Cosmoprof North America Miami, including educational sessions and an Entrepreneur Academy track.
The advisory board includes Brian Bordainick of Starface, Brian Sugar of POPSUGAR, Kelly Kovack of BeautyMatter, Olamide Olowe of Topicals, and Shai Eisenman of Bubble, among others. In January 2027, the cohort will present its progress to the advisory board in a formal capstone, after which members join the program’s alumni network and maintain access to mentorship and prospects across Maesa’s broader portfolio.
Program growth and impact
Since launching, the Maesa Magic Incubator has disbursed $315,000 in grants to underrepresented founders. The 2026-2027 cohort brings that total to $420,000, according to the company. Over four years of reviewing hundreds of applications from emerging beauty and personal-care brands, Maesa said the program has identified a shifting landscape of founder priorities: applicants now grapple with questions around artificial intelligence integration and building consumer bases before seeking revenue, alongside traditional hurdles such as formulation, manufacturing, inventory management and retail relationships.
This article was compiled by the Glamorade editorial desk from the official announcements and reporting listed under Sources.
