What drives founders to break new ground in the cosmetics industry? In the Start-up Area at CosmeticBusiness 2026, young companies show how innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and industry expertise come together. We spoke to the minds behind the start-ups about their personal motivation, strategic market opportunities and why a visit to their stand is particularly worthwhile.

Dermatological expertise meets AI technology

Thea Care was founded in 2023 by an interdisciplinary team combining dermatology, digital health, business development and AI technology. The impetus for founding the company was the desire to make a difference and make personalised skincare advice accessible to everyone. Through her clinical experience, one of the founders, Dr Suzan Stürmer, repeatedly realised just how great the need is for digital and objective skincare advice. This is particularly true where guidance and individual recommendations are lacking.

The starting point was the observation that, despite growing interest in personalised skincare advice, many customers know surprisingly little about their own skin type and the actual needs of their skin. As dermatology and cosmetology are highly visual disciplines, the combination of skin analysis and AI technology was an obvious choice for the team.

Their goal from the outset: not just to help individual patients, but to make skincare advice more objective and digitally scalable.

Personalisation is becoming a competitive factor

Skincare in particular is considered to require a great deal of explanation: skin type, skin condition and personal needs vary greatly. Customers therefore increasingly expect guidance and individual product recommendations rather than general, standard solutions.

For brands, personalisation is thus becoming a crucial lever for providing guidance, building trust and reducing mispurchases.

Challenge: Uncertainty in the purchasing process

Many consumers find it difficult to assess their own skin correctly. Traditional skin quizzes often remain subjective and provide only limited meaningful results.

At the same time, skincare ranges are becoming increasingly extensive and complex. This quickly leads to uncertainty for customers during the purchasing process, resulting in mispurchases or abandoned baskets.

For brands, this often means low conversion rates, high advisory costs and personalisation that is difficult to scale.

Solution: AI-based skin analysis with direct product recommendations

Thea Care combines AI-powered skin analysis with personalised product recommendations, making skincare advice more objective and digitally scalable.

The solution can be flexibly deployed in e-commerce, at the point of sale or in pharmacies. The approach is particularly relevant for skincare, beauty and dermocosmetics brands with product ranges requiring extensive advice.

With its technology, Thea Care delivers tangible added value:

• Personalised recommendations improve guidance during the purchasing process, increase the conversion rate and boost the average basket value through tailored skincare routines.

• Digital advice becomes scalable even for large product ranges and products requiring explanation.

• Brands gain valuable zero-party data and insights into skin needs, product selection and user behaviour.

Speed and flexibility as a start-up advantage

As a young company, Thea Care benefits from short decision-making processes and the direct connection between all relevant areas of expertise within the founding team.

Customer feedback is incorporated directly into product development. This means that individual adjustments, new features and customisation can be implemented much more quickly than within large, established corporate structures.

Over the next three years, the Berlin-based start-up aims to establish itself as the leading solution for digital, personalised skincare advice and to scale up further internationally.

“Our goal is to create even greater impact for brands and end customers – in e-commerce, at the POS and wherever skincare decisions are made,” says founder Dr Suzan Stürmer.

Thea Care at CosmeticBusiness 2026

Anyone wishing to learn more about AI-powered skin analysis will have the opportunity for direct discussion at CosmeticBusiness 2026. Thea Care will be exhibiting in the Start-up Area in Hall 4 at Stand E20.3, demonstrating how digital skincare advice with personalised product recommendations can be implemented in a scalable and data-driven manner.