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P&G Ventures Announces Lady Patch as Winner of the 2022 CES Innovation Challenge

P&G Ventures, the early-stage startup studio within Procter & Gamble, announced Lady Patch as the winner of the 2022 Innovation Challenge during the exciting virtual CES event. Lady Patch won out over a record number of submissions in Innovation Challenge history. The startup won the grand prize of $10,000. Lady Patch will also have the opportunity to partner with P&G Ventures to continue developing their product.

P&G President of New Business Guy Persaud announces that Cindy Santa Cruz's company Lady Patch has won the P&G Ventures Innovation Challenge
Image courtesy of P&G Ventures

Entrepreneur Cindy Santa Cruz is the founder of Lady Patch. The startup’s headquarters are in El, Segundo, CA. Lady Patch is the only drug-free feminine patch that prevents bladder leaks and the frequent urge to urinate. Initially, the product began as Santa Cruz’s mother’s invention. She used her own prototype for years in order to find relief. When Santa Cruz became a mother herself, she started dealing with incontinence. She decided to begin reinventing the original prototype her mother had used years before. Incontinence affects one in every three women around the world. Above all, Lady Patch is helping to provide those affected with a solution to improve their quality of life.

For the first time ever, three additional finalists won prize money. Cybele MicrobiomeKushae Naturals and Ryp Labs won a $5,000 prize in recognition of their innovative products.

Celebrating innovation and entrepreneurship

“We are pleased to name Lady Patch as the winner of this year’s P&G Ventures Innovation Challenge.  We thought this product offered an innovative solution to a problem that affects so many, and we’re very excited about the potential positive impact the product could have on the lives of women around the world,” said Guy Persaud, President of New Business for Procter & Gamble. “This year’s finalists were so outstanding that we wanted to give them special recognition as well. The Innovation Challenge is all about discovering and supporting ideas coming from startups and entrepreneurs across the country, and we are so inspired by all of this year’s applicants and their efforts to improve consumers’ lives.”

“Our company, Lady Patch, is honored to be selected as the winner of the 2022 Innovation Challenge,” said Founder Cindy Santa Cruz. “We are delighted to win the grand prize and receive the opportunity to partner with P&G Ventures to continue the strategic development of our product and company to help better the lives of women around the world. We are also grateful for the chance to pitch our product ideas alongside these esteemed companies with influential stories and innovative products.”

The P&G Ventures Innovation Challenge took place virtually during CES on Thursday, January 6th in the P&G Ventures LifeLab. Lady Patch and the additional three finalists pitched their product ideas to a panel of expert judges. These judges included Victor Aguilar, Chief R&D and Innovation Officer for P&G; Guy Persaud, President of New Business, P&G; Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO, Plug and Play Tech Center; Sarah Anderson, Founding Partner, Vault Fund; and Lee Henderson, Americas EY Private Leader and Executive Sponsor, EY Entrepreneurs Access Network.

To watch a recording of the Innovation Challenge please visit, youtube.com.

About P&G Ventures

Founded in 2015, P&G Ventures is an early-stage startup studio within P&G that creates new fast-moving consumer goods brands and businesses in new target categories by partnering internally or externally with entrepreneurs, inventors, visionaries, founders and start-ups.  P&G Ventures has embraced Lean principles and metered funding as it moves projects through the Discovery, Create, Build, and Scale phases of development.  To date, we have four brands (Zevo, Kindra, Bodewell and OPTE) that have entered Build phase, either internally within P&G or externally with our partner M13’s Launchpad. To learn more about P&G Ventures, go to PGVenturesStudio.com.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands. These brands include Always, Ambi Pur and Ariel, among others. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands.

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