EyeQue Corporation is a Newark, California digital-health company that turns an ordinary smartphone into a personal vision-testing lab. Built on optical technology licensed from MIT, its small clip-on devices and apps let people measure their own refractive error, pupillary distance and reading numbers at home for a fraction of the cost of a clinic visit, then use those results to order glasses online. Founded in 2015 by physicist John Serri and Zenni Optical's Tibor Laczay, EyeQue has won multiple CES Innovation Awards and raised more than $57 million to make eye care accessible to people who can't easily reach an eye doctor.
Freestyle is a Santa Monica-based, high-performance baby care company building premium diapers and wipes for modern parents who refuse to choose between performance, clean materials, and good design. Founded in 2022 by two dads, Russ Wallace and Mike Constantiner, the brand pairs proprietary absorbency technology (its BambooTek tree-free core and 7-layer Skin Shield system) with Total Chlorine Free, EWG Verified materials. After closing a $10M Series A led by Silas Capital in March 2026, Freestyle is scaling across Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Amazon, and its own subscription channel.
GearLaunch is a print-on-demand commerce platform that lets entrepreneurs design, sell, and ship custom products without holding inventory or paying upfront. Sellers handle the creative and marketing; GearLaunch handles production, printing, fulfillment, payment processing, and worldwide shipping across a catalog of thousands of customizable items.
Maev is an Austin-based direct-to-consumer pet brand making the first human-grade raw food for dogs. Founded by MIT engineer and Harvard MBA Katie Spies after her own dog's health scare, Maev sells frozen raw food, supplement bars, bone broth and freeze-dried treats built on USDA-certified protein, no fillers, and formulas vetted by PhD veterinary nutritionists. The company raised a $10M Series A led by VMG Partners in 2022 and expanded into retail via Chewy.
Material is a New York-based direct-to-consumer kitchenware company building beautifully designed, non-toxic, and sustainably made cooking essentials that are meant to last a lifetime. Founded in 2017 by Eunice Byun and Dave Nguyen, the brand pairs minimalist design with thoughtful materials - Japanese steel knives, copper-core pans, and the reBoard cutting board made from recycled plastic scraps and sugarcane - to make everyday cooking simpler and more pleasurable.
ONVI is a Chicago-based oral health technology company building what it calls an operating system for dental care. Founded by dentist Dr. Craig S. Kohler, the company pairs camera-equipped brushes - led by the Prophix video toothbrush - with a HIPAA-compliant software platform, ONView, that links what people see in their own mouths to their dentists. In August 2025 ONVI launched a $25 million Series A to commercialize a six-product hardware-and-software system aimed at closing the visibility gap between dental visits.
resbiotic is a physician-founded microbiome health company building clinically tested probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, and bioactive botanicals around its Gut-X Axis platform - the idea that the gut talks to the rest of the body. Its flagship resB Lung Support is positioned as the first clinically tested probiotic targeting the gut-lung axis for respiratory health. Founded in 2020 by physician-scientist Dr. C. Vivek Lal out of microbiome research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the company sells direct-to-consumer and through retail including Walmart and GNC, and has raised roughly $20.6M to date.
Trashie is a recycling and rewards platform that makes responsible disposal of clothing, textiles, and electronics frictionless. Customers buy a Take Back Bag, fill it with unwanted items in almost any condition, mail it back, and earn TrashieCash redeemable for rewards at hundreds of brands. Built by the team behind zero-waste fashion brand For Days, Trashie turns the chore of recycling into a rewarded habit while diverting millions of pounds of waste from landfills.
Rishabh Jain is the co-founder and CEO of FERMÀT, a San Francisco AI-native commerce platform that builds personalized, content-native shopping experiences for direct-to-consumer and enterprise brands. A LiveRamp alum who saw Apple's privacy changes coming before most, he launched FERMÀT in late 2021 to rewire how brands sell when shoppers can no longer be tracked across the web. The company has raised roughly $86M across rounds, capped by a $45M Series B in June 2025, and counts Glossier, GNC, ILIA Beauty, BISSELL and Unilever's Olly among its customers.
Aisle is a New York-based retail marketing platform that turns any marketing channel into a trackable in-store purchase. Brands run cashback and incentive campaigns that reach shoppers over text; consumers snap a photo of their receipt and get paid back via Venmo within minutes. Along the way, Aisle captures the first-party customer data and offline attribution that consumer-goods brands have historically been blind to. Over 600 brands and 450,000+ shoppers use it.
Alloy Health is a direct-to-consumer women's telehealth company built to fix how medicine treats menopause. Founded by Anne Fulenwider and Monica Molenaar, Alloy connects women in perimenopause and menopause with menopause-trained doctors and a full menu of FDA-approved, science-backed treatments - hormone replacement therapy, vaginal estrogen, plus hair, skin, sexual-wellness, gut and weight solutions - delivered to the door via an asynchronous platform with a flat $50 annual membership. The company raised a $16M Series A in November 2024 and reached profitability while serving women historically dismissed by the healthcare system.
Antenna is a New York-based market data company for the subscription economy. By analyzing the purchase and subscription signals of millions of U.S. consumers, it measures sign-ups, churn, retention, and market share for streaming and direct-to-consumer subscription brands - turning messy consumer behavior into industry benchmarks that tell companies what 'good' actually looks like.
Create Wellness is a New York-based consumer health company that built the world's first creatine monohydrate gummy, turning a messy, bodybuilder-coded powder into a low-sugar daily habit. Founded in 2022 by husband-and-wife team Dan and Sienna McCormick, the brand sells creatine gummies, electrolyte stick packs, and unflavored powder direct-to-consumer and through Target, GNC, The Vitamin Shoppe, Sprouts, and Wegmans. With more than 250 million gummies sold and $25M+ raised across Series A and Series B rounds, Create is trying to take creatine from the 2% of people who use it to the other 98%.
Imprint is a New York based education company behind a visual microlearning app that turns dense subjects - psychology, philosophy, history, finance, science - into illustrated, bite-sized lessons you can finish in under 10 minutes a day. Built by mobile entertainment veteran Daniel Terry and developed under the legal entity Polywise, Inc., the app pairs original animation with daily quizzes and visual guides to bestselling nonfiction books. It became one of the highest grossing and most decorated learning apps, winning Google Play's Best App of 2023 and earning Apple Editors' Choice recognition.
Meadow Memorials is a modern, technology-driven funeral and cremation company - a 'contemporary funeral home without the home.' Founded in 2024 by Stripe alum Sam Gerstenzang and AARP innovation leader Emma Gilsanz, Meadow lets families arrange direct cremations, memorials and celebrations of life by phone or online, partnering with local venues instead of running costly storefronts. With transparent, flat pricing (a typical funeral around $1,300 versus a U.S. median over $6,000), it has become the largest independent funeral home in California and raised a $9M Series A in March 2026.
Neura Health is a virtual neurology clinic that gives the 145 million Americans living with neurological conditions fast access to board-certified neurologists, dedicated care coaches, and an app-based treatment plan. Founded in 2020 by Elizabeth Burstein and Sameer Madan, the company pairs telehealth video visits with always-on care navigation to cut the typical months-long wait for a neurologist down to about a week, treating headache and migraine, epilepsy, sleep disorders, concussion, stroke recovery, tremor, long COVID, and memory disorders.
Pair Eyewear is a New York-based direct-to-consumer eyewear company that reinvented glasses as a customizable, collectible accessory. Its patented system pairs an affordable base frame with magnetic snap-on 'Top Frames' - over 1,000 designs spanning licensed collaborations with Disney, Marvel, the NFL, and The Met - so a single pair of glasses can change with your mood, outfit, or favorite team. Founded by Stanford grads Sophia Edelstein and Nathan Kondamuri in 2017, Pair has sold millions of Top Frames, built one of the most automated lens labs in the U.S., and raised roughly $148M to scale a recurring-revenue model in an industry long defined by buy-once-every-two-years inertia.
Remarkable AI (formerly Chatdesk) is a New York-based customer engagement platform that pairs AI with a network of vetted brand experts to handle support, retention, and acquisition for consumer and e-commerce brands. Its software connects to a brand's existing stack - Shopify, Zendesk, email, SMS, and social - to resolve tickets, win back lapsed customers, and turn social comments and DMs into sales, 24/7 and in the brand's own voice.
US Mobile is a New York-based mobile virtual network operator that lets customers build their own wireless plans and switch between Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile on a single line. Branded internally as Warp (Verizon), Dark Star (AT&T), and Light Speed (T-Mobile), its 'Teleport' multi-network technology and eSIM-first approach have pushed it toward a self-styled 'Super Carrier' that now also bundles Starlink home internet. Founded in 2015 by Ahmed Khattak, it has grown from a niche unlocked-phone reseller to roughly a million customers.
WTHN is a modern wellness brand rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine, built to make acupuncture, cupping, herbal remedies and acupressure tools accessible to everyday people. Founded in New York in 2019 by Michelle Larivee and Dr. Shari Auth, it pairs design-forward studios across NYC with an at-home product line sold through 200+ retailers and e-commerce, aiming to take centuries-old healing out of the back room and into modern life.
Sarah Jahnke is the CEO and co-founder of Homecourt, the luxury fragrance and homecare brand she built with actress Courteney Cox. A former L'Oreal fragrance marketer turned operator, she treats dish soap and counter spray like fine perfume, and has doubled the company's revenue every year since its 2022 launch while keeping the core team famously tiny. Homecourt raised an $8M Series A led by CULT Capital and now sits in 300-plus retail doors including Nordstrom and Bluemercury.
Samarth Sindhi is the founder and CEO of Good Health Company (GHC), the Hyderabad-based direct-to-consumer wellness platform behind Mars by GHC (for men) and Saturn by GHC (for women). A Brown University mechanical engineer and Y Combinator S19 alum, he first built Digi-Prex, a subscription pharmacy for chronic care, before launching GHC in January 2021 to tackle topics men rarely talk about out loud. GHC has raised about $15.2 million, including a $10 million Series A led by Left Lane Capital in October 2022, and Sindhi has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30.
Sara Polon is the co-founder and CEO of Soupergirl, the Washington, DC plant-based soup company she launched in 2008 with her mother Marilyn (a.k.a. Soupermom). A former stand-up comedian who once led tours through the Middle East, she turned a reading of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma into a mission to fix a broken food system one bowl at a time. Soupergirl survived a no-deal turn on Shark Tank, raised a $2M Series A from sustainability investors, became the first brand to earn Fair Food Program certification, went plastic-neutral, and now sells in hundreds of retailers including Whole Foods, Costco and Kroger.
Arnaud Plas is the co-founder and CEO of Prose, the New York based beauty-tech company that makes custom haircare and skincare to order, one formula per person. A former L'Oreal digital and e-commerce executive, he left big CPG in 2017 to attack the one-size-fits-all model with AI-driven consultations and a software-run, make-after-you-buy factory. Under his watch Prose reached profitability in 2023, sold more than 10 million bespoke products, and pushed net sales past $140 million on its way to an estimated $160 million in 2024.
Dan McCormick is the co-founder and CEO of Create Wellness, the New York brand that turned creatine from a bodybuilder's powder into a daily gummy. After years inside high-growth consumer companies like Away, Parade and the Not Boring newsletter, he started Create in 2022 with his wife Sienna and pioneered the first creatine monohydrate gummy. The company has sold over 250 million gummies, reached GNC and Target shelves, and raised a $20M Series B in 2026 led by Alliance Consumer Growth.
francesca's® was an American women's fashion and lifestyle retailer known for its eclectic mix of clothing, jewelry, accessories and giftable items sold across hundreds of small boutiques and online at francescas.com. Founded in Houston in 1999, it grew from a single store into a national chain of more than 700 boutiques, went public on the Nasdaq in 2011, and built a loyal following of women shopping for affordable, trend-driven, occasion-ready style. After two Chapter 11 bankruptcies, the company wound down and closed its remaining locations in early 2026.
Kendo Brands is a San Francisco-based beauty brand incubator and operator owned by LVMH. Named as a play on the phrase 'can do,' Kendo creates and acquires beauty brands and scales them into global businesses, blending startup energy with the backing of the world's largest luxury group. Its portfolio includes Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin, Fenty Hair and Fenty Fragrance by Rihanna, OLEHENRIKSEN, and Lip Lab, distributed in 60+ countries.
Paula's Choice is a Seattle-based, research-backed skincare brand founded by consumer advocate Paula Begoun in 1995. Built on the radical idea that beauty should be judged by ingredients rather than marketing, the company sells fragrance-free, cruelty-free, science-driven products direct to consumers around the world. Its cult 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant and a culture of ingredient transparency turned a self-published 'Cosmetics Cop' into a roughly $300M brand that Unilever acquired in 2021.
P. N. Gadgil Jewellers (PNG Jewellers) is one of India's oldest jewellery houses, founded in 1832 and headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra. The company designs and retails gold, diamond, silver and platinum jewellery through a fast-growing network of stores across Maharashtra, Goa and an outlet in the United States, plus an online D2C platform. After a heavily over-subscribed ₹1,100 crore IPO in September 2024, PNG Jewellers blends nearly two centuries of goldsmithing heritage with modern omnichannel retail, BIS hallmarking, lifetime buyback and a stable of Bollywood brand ambassadors.
Specialized Bicycle Components is a Morgan Hill, California maker of high-performance bicycles, components and gear founded in 1974 by Mike Sinyard. It built the first mass-produced mountain bike, the 1981 Stumpjumper, and today designs road, mountain, gravel and Turbo e-bikes alongside helmets, apparel and the Retul fit system. With roughly 1,300 employees and an estimated $500M in revenue, it is one of America's 'Big Three' bike brands and a fixture in pro road, mountain and triathlon racing.