Meet the fab, female, foodie founder duos

Female entrepreneurs are more visible than ever in grocery. A breakthrough moment came in 2024, when Ocado launched a dedicated ‘aisle’ on its website for female-founded brands, bringing together more than 1,500 products from 130 suppliers.

That idea is growing. Last month, Tesco introduced dedicated Buy Women Built (BWB) shippers to over 100 stores, featuring products from Pip & Nut, Fearne & Rosie and Bio&Me – all founded by women.

“The world we operate in today is night and day versus what it was 10 years ago,” says Thea Alexander, CEO at fmcg consultancy YF. “You used to be able to count the female founders in fmcg that you could look up to on one hand. Now, day in, day out, you see celebrated, successful, female-founded businesses.”

Still, there’s room for improvement. The UK, for example, has 30% fewer female entrepreneurs than other developed economies.

Marisa Poster, co-founder of PerfectTed, says unconscious bias among investors is often a barrier. “Pattern recognition is powerful, and if most of the people who’ve scaled big fmcg brands historically are men, that becomes the mental shortcut.”

Indeed, all-female founder teams only received a 1.9% share of total equity investment in 2024, according to the Innovate UK & British Business Bank Small Business Equity Tracker 2025.

“It’s staggering,” says Double Dutch co-founder Raissa de Haas. “Fmcg is a capital-intensive industry; you’re funding stock, production runs, listings, trade spend, marketing… Without significant funding, it’s incredibly difficult to scale.”

The irony is, investors are missing out on a huge commercial opportunity. Over six in 10 (62%) of shoppers said they’d be more likely to choose a product with a BWB kitemark over an alternative, found a survey of 1,000 UK consumers in the She Built This report in June 2025.

Among women, purchase intent rose to 74% – an important stat given “85% of household spend is held by women”, says Amisha Mody, head of partnerships at BWB. Ocado is a powerful case study: value sales of products from female-founded businesses rose by 20% within six months of the launch of its BWB aisle.

Tesco’s BWB shippers are in their early days, having only launched last month. Still, Fearne & Rosie experienced its “highest-ever sales day” shortly afterwards. “So far, we’re selling over four times our usual,” says Fearne & Rosie founder Rachel Kettlewell.

Kettlewell believes she’s been “very lucky” in her interactions with retailers as a female founder. However, she thinks there’s still “a lot of work to do around parenting” to level the playing field. “Over the past year, I’ve started to work reduced hours over the school holidays, and I don’t work Fridays. I think it’s about having those open conversations around childcare and expectations at home,” she says.

Pip & Nut founder Pip Murray agrees female founders and their families need more flexibility. “When I had my daughter, my partner took nine months of paternity leave and became the primary carer so I could continue to grow Pip & Nut,” says Murray. “That support was transformative, and it’s why I’m a big believer in businesses offering shared and equal parental leave.”

Even against those odds, female founders are flying in fmcg. Here are five female co-founded brands making their mark in the industry…

Lucy & Taya Jackson

Founders, Nashi

Korean pear juice brand Nashi is pitched as a product you “drink before alcohol for the feel-good way to start your night”. It was born out of sisters Lucy (l) and Taya Jackson’s desire to live a more balanced lifestyle.

“I moved to Australia and tried Korean pear juice,” Taya explains. “It became part of my pre-drinking ritual, so when I came back to the UK, I brought a load with me. Lucy was marathon training, so I gave it to her, and she texted me saying: ‘I feel a million dollars.’”

Korean pear juice has been culturally embedded across Asia for centuries and studies suggest it can reduce hangover severity. “The research isn’t mature enough yet for us to really lean on that, but we are leaning on it fitting into wellness culture,” Taya says.

Nashi comes in 250ml cans, which is typically larger than rival serving sizes and pouch containers. But rather than just the product, the pair believe the brand’s true “superpower” lies in their sisterly bond.

“We get on really well and, don’t get me wrong, we bicker, we argue, but we can speak to each other honestly,” Lucy says.

“We bicker, we argue, but we can speak to each other honestly”

As female founders, the pair have also learned that “preparation is everything”.  “It’s obvious there are still rooms in grocery where women are underrepresented, and we’re conscious that lends itself to us needing to establish credibility quickly,” says Taya.

“We also don’t have a big budget. We don’t have a marketing team. We’re doing everything ourselves, from sampling to field sales to packing to suppliers. We hope that will bring us a level of brand equity because people buy from people,” she adds.

The brand is already seeing success in independent retailers. Last year, 100% of Nashi’s stockists re-ordered. “It’s an amazing indicator for us,” Taya says. “But we want to be in all the big retailers too – that’s what we’re working towards.”

Morgan Mixon & Rima Suppan

Founders, Peachies

They say finding a co-founder is like dating – when you find the one, you know. For Morgan Mixon (r) and Rima Suppan, that moment came just days into their studies at Imperial College London, where they’d both signed up to run the university’s entrepreneurship club.

“The fact we weren’t friends at the time gave us such clarity on whether it could turn into a fruitful working relationship,” says Suppan. Three years after launching nappy brand Peachies, they now serve 50,000-plus parents and this year are on track to reach eight-digit DTC revenue in the UK alone.

Fittingly, their relationship today is akin to parents who have weathered many storms together. “Neither of us would do this alone,” says Mixon. “Co-founding a business is like parenting children and doing it yourself is like being a single parent.”

She recalls the first time they thought it was all over – their first minimum quantity order, which came a week before Mixon’s wedding: “We didn’t raise that much money: it would take every dime.” They were able to renegotiate and their business has thrived since, growing from two people to a 20-person team.

“We give each other creative autonomy to make decisions”

These days, scaling up and delegating is the challenge. For Mixon, that means logistical wrangles involving hundreds of containers. Suppan, meanwhile, handles the front end: marketing, hiring and fundraising.

Thankfully, their trials have given them confidence and resilience. Their approach also comes from deep trust. “If Rima told me she was going to do something, she always did it. We give each other creative autonomy to make decisions.” That’s especially useful as Mixon prepares for her second round of maternity leave. “We’ve done it once, we’ll do it again,” says Suppan. “We’ve always come out the other side.”