Startup providing sustainable solution for luxury brands wins 2022 LVMH Innovation Award

In an era of unprecedented digital acceleration, each of these startups embodies excellence in its particular area of expertise, with products or services that are helping to shape the customer experience of the future.

LVMH announces 2022 Innovation Award prize list, and its Grand Winner TOSHI, during 2022 Viva Technology show, the annual technology conference, dedicated to innovation and startups, held in Paris, France. Viva Technology (VivaTech) was founded in 2016 by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos. Vivatech is the world’s rendezvous for startups and leaders to celebrate innovation.

On the second day of the 2022 Viva Technology show in Paris, France (June 15-18,2022), LVMH luxury group revealed the winners of the 6th LVMH Innovation Award during a dedicated award ceremony. TOSHI, a startup which provides the sustainable and highly-customized last-mile solution for luxury retail brands to better serve their omnichannel customers, was chosen as the overall winner after deliberation by Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO and members of the selection committee. Six other startups were awarded in specific categories: 3D/Virtual Product Experience & Metaverse, Employee Experience & CSR, Media & Brand Awareness, Omnichannel & Retail, Operations & Manufacturing Excellence, and Sustainability; and one received a Special Mention in the Data & Artificial Intelligence field.

For six years now, the LVMH Innovation Award has been one of the highlights of the Viva Technology show in Paris, which has itself become a key event for the world’s innovation ecosystem. Through its participation, LVMH recognizes the need to support entrepreneurial spirit and innovation in order to build a better future for everyone. It also demonstrates how its own success is due in part to the ongoing dialogue between its 75 Maisons and the world of startups, a constant source of creativity.

More than 950 startup applications were received from 75 countries for the 2022 LVMH Innovation Award. A total of 21 startups from 10 different countries were selected as finalists, notably reflecting their ability to enhance the customer experience through different dimensions. 48% of the finalists have a female founder or co-founder.

“At LVMH, Innovation is our lifeblood. It’s what allows us to continually increase the desirability of our Maisons’s products and services. The finalists of the 2022 Innovation Award will bring us their capacity to nourish the encounter between luxury and technology even more, as their entrepreneurial spirit joins and inspires our own”, says Bernard Arnault, CEO and Chairman, LVMH.

TOSHI wins 2022 LVMH Innovation Award

London-based startup TOSHI, which was founded in 2017, brings elevated and humanized standards to the delivery of luxury goods. It brings in-store services directly to the customer at a time and location that suits the customer best. TOSHI also offers an innovative and sustainable approach to its logistics, using public transportation to avoid cities’ congestion, as well as an electric vehicle fleet to achieve carbon neutral deliveries. Its employees are all salaried. The Startup’s clients include Berluti, Christian Dior Couture and Rimowa.

“We are so thrilled and grateful to win the LVMH Innovation Awards. Brands are swiftly adapting to the new consumer lifestyle, which has already geared to the on-demand economy in all other elements of their lives, with convenience at its core. Brands must be omnichannel, sustainable and focus on customer service/experience. We believe that these at-home services that TOSHI provides will become standard, the new norm of shopping in the near future.” says Sojin Lee, Founder and CEO Toshi.

TOSHI will benefit from a 6-month personalized support as part of LVMH’s accelerator program, “La Maison des Startups LVMH”, which has been based at the Station F startup campus in Paris since 2018.

2022 winners by category

Data & Artificial Intelligence Special Mention: MarqVision
Founded in 2019 in Los Angeles, MarqVision detects counterfeits to remove them from online sales. With AI image recognition and semantic analysis, Marqvision allows brands to detect and remove counterfeit sales at scale. The ability to capture and process high volume data allows to generate comprehensive analysis of the counterfeit landscape. The startup’s clients include Bulgari and Tiffany&Co.

3D/Virtual Experience & Metaverse: Bitski
San Francisco-based Bitski was founded in 2018. Brands use Bitski as their enterprise management layer to create, sell NFTs and embed them on their websites, metaverse apps or games. They also allow users to store their NFTs in secure and compliant wallets for them to easily connect their wallets to different metaverses.

Employee Experience & CSR: Gamino
Gamino was founded in 2020 in Nanterre, France and offers digital trainings to raise awareness on disabilities. With Gamino, disability awareness is entirely digitalized and is done «by resemblance». It is accessible on all types of media and 24 hours a day. Awareness by resemblance allows them to put the participating employees in concrete disability situations during a one-week event.

Media & Brand Awareness: SeenThis
Stockholm-based SeenThis was founded in 2017 and offers streaming technology that speeds up the display of video ads and content. All ads are instant loading, optimized to a user’s internet connection and are environmentally friendly. SeenThis transforms digital advertising by streaming HD quality video and content via display without file size restrictions.

Omnichannel & Retail: The ShowCase
Created in 2021 and based in Geneva, The ShowCase enhances the presentation of watches & jewelry product through live videos. It offers a hardware device to be used in stores, enabling sales associates to give a personalized, qualitative and enriched remote presentation of the product, all while simultaneously maintaining a close contact with their client. The startup’s clients include Chaumet, Louis Vuitton and TAG Heuer.

Operations & Manufacturing Excellence: : TOSHI
London-based startup TOSHI was founded in 2017 brings new standards to the delivery of luxury goods. It offers a check-out delivery option for online customers, allowing them to pick a precise 30 minutes delivery slot, try-on multiple sizes and “inspire me” items without any upfront payment. Returns are instantly taken away. The Startup’s clients include Berluti, Christian Dior Couture and Rimowa. TOSHI wins the Operations & Manufacturing Excellence Prize, but is also the Grand Winner of the LVMH Innovation Award 2022.

Sustainability: WeTurn
Founded in 2020 in Paris, WeTurn transforms unsold goods and textiles into new recycled yarns and qualitative fabrics. This 100% close loop is traceable, European and impactless. The Startup’s clients include Christian Dior Couture for which they recycled their iconic Toile de Jouy fabric into a new collection of yarn.

Augmented presence for LVMH at Viva Technology 2022

This year, LVMH had an augmented presence, with interconnected physical and digital spaces throughout the event. The Group’s focus was on three key issues for luxury industry – data transformation, Web3 and sustainability.

In the 600-sq.m. “LVMH Apartment” set up at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, the high-end Group showcased innovations by 16 of its Maisons, solutions developed by the 21 startups shortlisted for the LVMH Innovation Award and collaborations with 5 startups from previous years. The “Open Kitchen” section of the LVMH stand hosted the DARE intrapreneurship program and La Maison des Startups.

In addition, the Viva Technology speakers list featured several of luxury leaders and experts: Toni Belloni, Group Managing Director, Laurent Boillot, CEO of Hennessy, and Nelly Mensah, who heads up the Group’s Crypto & Metaverse initiatives.

LVMH was also present on the 2022 VivaTech digital platform with four tech talks hosted by Livi – LVMH’s new “Face of Innovation” – on four different topics: Data & Beauty Tech, Blockchain, NFT & Metaverse, Sustainability, Startup acceleration by LVMH.

Last but not least, LVMH was also present for the very first time in the virtual world with a microverse – an augmented version of LVMH’s physical stand – where Livi played hostess.