IWD 2024: Women-Led Plant-Based Companies Shaping the Future of Food

Today is International Women’s Day, a day all about raising visibility and awareness of women’s rights, and celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Even though the climate crisis seems too tall a mountain to climb sometimes, so many women are using their voices and pushing for change through food, the most powerful tool of action. Today, we celebrate these women, and what their plant-based companies are doing to change the world.

Hannah Carter and Polly Trollope founded OGGS, a UK-based vegan egg and baked goods company, in 2019 – since then, it has saved the equivalent of five million chicken eggs.

Kimberlie Le is the co-founder of Prime Roots, a mycelium meat company that makes deli meats, charcuterie and bacon from koji, and was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for social impact in 2021.

Aleah Rae Montague is the co-founder of Meat the Mushroom, which makes Shroomacon, a clean-label vegan bacon from king oyster mushrooms, and shot to fame on Shark Tank earlier this year.

Another Shark Tank company that’s making vegan bacon is Umaro Foods, whose co-founders Beth Zotter and Amanda Stiles are using seaweed to make plant-based proteins.

The plant-based sector is booming in India. On the meat analogue side, Bollywood actress Genelia Deshmukh co-founded Imagine Meats; Roma Roy Choudhury founded Evolved Foods; Pranjuli Garg co-founded ProMeat, Akanksha Ghai co-founded BVeg Foods, and Nikki Arora Singh founded Blue Tribe Foods. And in the alt-dairy realm, there’s Sweta Khandelwal, who co-founded Better Bet; Aarohi Surya, founder of Dancing Cow; and Anushi Patel, founder of Soft Spot Cheese.

Based in Indonesia, Helga Angelina Tjahjadi is the co-founder of the country’s first plant-based meat company, Green Rebel Foods, and vegan restaurant chain Burgreens.

Vinita Choolani is founder of Singapore’s Float Foods, the maker of Asia’s first plant-based whole egg, OnlyEg. It recently secured a food safety certification for its Halal-certified facility to offer its tech to other manufacturers looking to ditch eggs.

Astrid Prajogo is the founder and CEO of China’s HaoFood, which makes meat alternatives using peanut protein. Its latest innovation is vegan xiaolongbaos (soup dumplings), with peanut meat replacing the traditional minced pork filling.

Philippine Soulères Albrand and Sheryline Thavisouk are the co-founders of Le Papondu, a French startup whose vegan eggs come in shells.

Liron Nimrodi is the co-founder and CEO of Zero Egg, an Israel-based plant-based egg company that is available in multiple countries now, including the US.

Deniz Ficicioglu is the co-founder of Berlin-based BettaF!sh, which makes vegan tuna using European seaweed.

Tanja Bogumil is the co-founder of fellow German startup Perfeggt, which is making pea-protein-based liquid vegan eggs that you can use in scrambles, carbonara, and pancakes.

Oyebola Adeyanju is the co-founder of Nigeria’s first plant-based food tech company, Veggie Victory, a Black-owned business rooted in its gender-balanced and social fairness values.

Christie Lagally founded Rebellyous Foods in 2017, and has shaped the company into a leader in the vegan chicken sector.

Courtney Boyd Myers is the co-founder of Akua, a New York-based startup that makes seaweed burgers from sustainable ocean-farmed kelp and has previously been named one of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas for Food.

Hailey Swartz is co-founder of Actual Veggies, a fellow New York company that makes chef-crafted, whole-food plant-based burgers, made from sustainably sourced crops from regional farmers.

Canadian scientist Sujala Balaji is the founder of Rainfed Foods, a food tech company making plant-based milks from millets.

Monica Talbert is the co-founder of The Plant Based Seafood Co, an all-female, family-owned brand making fish- and crustacean-free crab cakes, scallops and shrimps.

Kerry Song is the founder of US plant-based meat brand Abbot’s Butcher, whose product range includes ground beef, chopped chicken, chorizo, and a burger.

Michelle Lee is co-founder at Lypid, a vegan fat company whose first innovation, PhytoFat, was used in a vegan pork belly, and is now part of plant-based meatballs suitable for multiple cuisines.

Hema Reddy is the founder of US company Crafty Counter, which makes WunderEgg, a range of plant-based boiled and deviled eggs, and egg patties.

And Marissa Cuevas Flores and Fanny Villiers are co-founders of MicroTERRA, a Mexican startup leveraging the power of duckweed to make plant-based proteins and ingredients, with its latest innovation aimed at sugar reduction.

This is by no means an exhaustive list – just a snapshot of all the female-founded companies doing incredible work for their communities, human health, and the climate crisis. Here’s to all the women in the world. More power to you and everything you do. Happy International Women’s Day!