vegan
(23)
The Machine That Turns a Handful of Almonds Into a Milk Habit
Almond Cow bet that people would rather make oat and almond milk on their counter than buy it in a carton. Roughly 300,000 households later, the bet is looking less strange.
The Woman Who Sold America a Coffee With No Coffee In It
Caroline MacDougall couldn't drink coffee but loved the taste. So she roasted chicory, carob and figs into a caffeine-free brew - and built the best-selling coffee alternative in America.
The Recipe App That Wants to Pay the People Who Actually Cook
Bill and Hayley Staley spent a decade turning a Paleo food blog into cookbooks and a spice line. Now they are building the marketplace they wish they'd had - one where creators, brands and home cooks all get a cut of the table.
The Yellowstone Microbe That Wants Your Breakfast Table
A geomicrobiologist scooped a strange fungus out of a Yellowstone hot spring. A decade and half a billion dollars later, it is being sold as cream cheese, yogurt and breakfast patties.
The Curvy Bottle That Convinced America to Pour Almonds in Its Coffee
Founded by the man who once sold Odwalla to Coca-Cola, Califia Farms turned a citrus packinghouse and a strangely shaped bottle into a plant-milk empire pouring in about 30 countries.
Nature's Path Foods
Forty years ago a berry-farmer's son turned his father's one-line advice into a cereal company. Nature's Path is still family-run, still refuses to sell, and still puts organic breakfast on tables in more than 40 countries.
Growthwell Foods
Growthwell Foods is a Singapore-based plant-based protein company building meat and seafood alternatives tailored for Asian palates. Re-founded in 2019 by brothers Justin and Colin Chou on top of their father's 1989 vegetarian food business, it manufactures brands like HAPPIEE! and owns a majority stake in Israeli ingredient maker ChickP, which produces a chickpea protein isolate above 90% purity. Backed by a $22M Series A led by Creadev with Temasek and GGV Capital, the company operates a fully automated R&D and production facility at Senoko and aims to feed a growing region hungry for sustainable, culturally familiar protein.
Ocean's Halo
Ocean's Halo is a California-based natural foods company that grows, harvests and packages organic, ocean-to-table Asian-inspired products - from its signature trayless seaweed snacks to frozen kimbap, broths, noodle bowls and sauces. Founded in 2011 as New Frontier Foods by a group of former finance and tech executives, the brand farms its own organic seaweed in a protected bay off South Korea and sells through roughly 10,000 retail doors including Costco, Whole Foods, Walmart and Target, pairing plant-based nutrition with plastic-free, trayless packaging and a 1% for the Planet conservation pledge.
Pique
Pique (piquelife.com) is a Los Angeles-based direct-to-consumer wellness brand best known for pioneering crystallized whole-leaf tea. Founded by Simon Cheng, the company turns organic teas and plant compounds into single-serve crystals that dissolve in cold or hot water, and it has expanded into skin, gut, hydration and energy supplements built around its Cold Extraction Technology and Triple Toxin Screening standards.
Playground
Playground is a female-founded sexual wellness brand making clean, vegan, water-based personal lubricants and intimacy products intentionally formulated for women. Its FDA-cleared, clinically tested formulas blend adaptogens like ashwagandha with skincare-grade ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, vitamin E and bamboo extract to support vaginal health while boosting libido. Co-founded with pop icon Christina Aguilera as Chief Brand Advisor, Playground raised $2M in seed funding and sells direct-to-consumer plus retail partners including Target.
Red Flower
Red Flower is a New York City natural lifestyle company founded in 1999 by cultural anthropologist and herbalist Yael Alkalay. It makes biodegradable, biocompatible botanical beauty - certified organic perfumes, aromatherapeutic body and hair care, bath-house-inspired home spa collections, and its signature petal-topped candles. Vegan, cruelty-free and free of parabens, sulfates and petrochemicals, the brand turns everyday washing and bathing into deliberate sensory rituals, and supplies luxury hotels and spas with award-winning guest-room amenities.
wildwonder
wildwonder is a San Francisco-based functional beverage company making sparkling prebiotic and probiotic drinks inspired by the Chinese herbal healing tonics founder Rosa Li grew up drinking. Each organic, vegan, low-sugar can pairs 5g of prebiotic plant fiber and live probiotics with herbs, botanicals, and fruit flavors like Guava Rose and Mango Gold. Positioned as a better-for-you soda alternative, the brand has sold millions of cans across thousands of retailers, landed a Shark Tank deal with DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, and directs 5% of profits toward empowering women and marginalized communities.
SEEN Haircare
SEEN Haircare is a dermatologist-developed hair and scalp care brand built on the idea that 'haircare is skincare.' Founded by Harvard-trained dermatologist Dr. Iris Rubin after her own haircare products caused facial breakouts, SEEN makes shampoos, conditioners, serums, masks and styling products clinically proven to be non-comedogenic (won't clog pores) and safe for sensitive skin. The brand is sold direct-to-consumer and at more than 700 Ulta Beauty doors, and closed a $9 million Series A in September 2024.
Abbot's
Abbot's (formerly Abbot's Butcher) is a Costa Mesa, California maker of premium plant-rich proteins built from 100% real food ingredients - pea protein, vegetables, herbs, spices, extra virgin olive oil and vinegars. Founded in 2017 by Kerry Song, the brand makes plant-based 'Chorizo,' Ground 'Beef,' Chopped and Fajita Chick'n, Italian 'Sausage' and high-protein veggie burgers that are free from the top nine allergens, seed oils, gums, preservatives and artificial flavors. With distribution in thousands of retail and foodservice locations including Whole Foods, Sprouts, Publix and Target, Abbot's positions clean, craveable plant food under a 'food as medicine' philosophy.
Homecourt
Homecourt is a luxury home and personal care brand founded in 2022 by actress Courteney Cox and beauty-industry veteran Sarah Jahnke. It applies beauty-grade standards to everyday household products, selling non-toxic, plant-based, fine-fragrance cleaning sprays, candles, body care and laundry products through its own site and retailers including Nordstrom, Bluemercury, Revolve and Amazon. The company raised an $8 million Series A in October 2025 led by CULT Capital after doubling revenue every year with a famously tiny team.
IQBAR
IQBAR is a Boston-based 'brain + body' nutrition company that makes plant-protein bars, electrolyte hydration mixes (IQMIX), and adaptogenic mushroom coffee (IQJOE) formulated with brain nutrients like Lion's Mane and Magtein magnesium L-threonate. Founded by Harvard psychology grad Will Nitze, IQBAR pairs low-sugar, vegan, keto-friendly snacks with functional ingredients aimed at sustained mental clarity and energy, sold direct-to-consumer and across 8,000+ retail locations including CVS and Kroger.
Little Sesame
Little Sesame is a Washington, D.C.-born food company that makes freshly spun, organic hummus from regeneratively farmed American chickpeas. What began in a 500-square-foot basement beneath a deli has grown into a two-part business: a fast-casual hummus restaurant and a national consumer-packaged-goods brand sold in more than 1,000 retail doors, including Whole Foods, Sprouts and Wegmans. The company pairs chef-driven flavor with a direct, traceable supply chain that supports regenerative organic farmers and treats good agriculture as a climate tool.
Rosaluna Mezcal
Rosaluna is an all-natural, single-estate mezcal handmade in Santiago Matatlan, Oaxaca, by a family with more than six generations of agave-growing heritage. Made with only agave, water and a slow maturation that yields a sweeter, less smoky profile, the brand pairs Oaxacan craft with a design-forward identity built around the idea that 'Mezcal is Magic.' Certified organic, vegan, non-GMO and carbon neutral, Rosaluna became the first mezcal brand to earn the Distintivo Verde sustainability certification, and in 2025 raised Series A financing led by wine entrepreneur Sacha Lichine to scale distribution across the United States.
RYZE Superfoods
RYZE Superfoods is a Boston-based direct-to-consumer wellness brand best known for its mushroom coffee - a blend of organic instant coffee, organic fiber, and a six-mushroom 'Super6' functional blend (cordyceps, lion's mane, reishi, turkey tail, shiitake, and king trumpet). Founded in 2020 by Harvard classmates Andrée Werner and Rashad Hossain, RYZE pitches a calmer, lower-caffeine ritual that delivers focus and immune support without the spike-and-crash of regular coffee. The company grew largely on early seed money plus aggressive social and influencer marketing, reaching reported revenue in the tens of millions while expanding into matcha, hot cocoa, creamers, and other functional blends.
Create Wellness
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%.
Amy's Kitchen
Amy's Kitchen is a family-owned, privately held organic food maker based in Petaluma, California. Founded in 1987 by Andy and Rachel Berliner and named after their daughter, the company makes 250-plus vegetarian frozen and convenience meals - soups, burritos, pizzas, bowls and mac and cheese - all built from organic, non-GMO ingredients. A Certified B Corporation, Amy's has grown from a kitchen-table pot pie into a roughly billion-dollar retail brand without ever going public.
e.l.f. Beauty
e.l.f. Beauty is an Oakland-based, publicly traded cosmetics company (NYSE: ELF) built on a simple disruptive idea: prestige-quality makeup and skincare that almost everyone can afford. Founded in 2004 as e.l.f. (Eyes Lips Face) and reshaped under CEO Tarang Amin since 2014, it has grown into a multi-brand house spanning e.l.f. Cosmetics, e.l.f. SKIN, Well People, Keys Soulcare, Naturium, and Hailey Bieber's rhode. Every product is vegan and cruelty-free, most cost under $20, and the company has become a case study in social-first, community-driven brand building.
Eat Just, Inc.
Eat Just, Inc. is a San Francisco-area food technology company best known for JUST Egg, a plant-based scrambled egg made from mung bean protein, and GOOD Meat, the first cultivated meat product cleared for sale anywhere in the world. Founded in 2011 by Josh Tetrick and Josh Balk, the company has raised more than $850 million to push affordable, animal-free protein into mainstream grocery aisles, restaurants, and - now - U.S. retail meat cases under the Just Meat brand.