Black History Month is all about honoring the triumphs, struggles, and contributions of Black Americans to America's story, and that story would be incomplete without celebrating the Black CPG entrepreneurs creating products people love.
This list compiles just a few of the Black-founded brands that are transforming their respective categories and winning on shelves across the states. So remember, Black History is more than a month - in the CPG world, there are Black entrepreneurs building better products to try every day of the year.
Denise Woodard founded Partake when her daughter was diagnosed with life-threatening food allergies. Her deeply personal mission drove her to create a brand that offers consumers delicious, allergen-free cookies.
Partake quickly caught the attention of investors - including Rihanna's Marcy Ventures - and shoppers everywhere, spreading to grocery shelves all over the country.
Denise is also paying it forward with the founding of the Black Futures fellowship program, which is open to active HBCU juniors and above interested in a future career in the food and beverage industry.
When co-founder and CEO Bea Dixon struggled to find feminine care products that addressed her needs with natural ingredients that actually work, she took matters into her own hands. The Honey Pot was born out of consumer demand for more natural, plant-based products with a straight-forward ingredients list.
Today you can find Honey Pot products at retailers like Target, Walmart, Urban Outfitters, Walgreens, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wegmans and Whole Foods. And that's just one of Bea's many accolades since The Honey Pot Company's founding: she has been a recipient of the Sundial and Unilever’s multimillion-dollar New Voices fund, and was 1 of the first 40 women of color to raise one million dollars in venture capital.
When Jennifer Martin stumbled upon some deliciously unique heirloom popcorn shells while working at a farmer's market in Chicago, she immediately shared them with her brother Jeff Martin and his wife Teresa. Little did they know that within a few short years, they'd be featured on Oprah and making an appearance on Shark Tank.
Since they debuted their better-for-you popcorn way back in 2012, the Pipcorn team has come a long way, debuting more products like cheeseballs, fries, twists, and more, but they remain a family-owned business dedicated to creating products people love.
Incredibly, the McBride half-sisters met for the first time in 1999 after being raised separately - in regions equally recognized for their wine terroir and production, California and New Zealand. Clearly, wine was in their future.
They started out in 2005 as importers before expanding in 2016 to their own production in the form of the McBride Sisters Collection. Nowadays, the McBride Sisters are producing wines that can be found in retailers like Target and Whole Foods, and they're in the top 2% in terms of scale and amount of wine that they produce in the US.
Founder Jamyla Bennu was frustrated by the lack of variety of products made for textured or coily hair - everything claimed to "straighten" or "relax" - but nothing claimed to care for her hair's natural needs like moisturizing.
So, in 2001, Jamyla she and her husband Pierre Bennu - an award-winning filmmaker, writer, artist and performer – co-founded Oyin Handmade to bring the better-for-you hair, skin and body care products to market that so many consumers were clamoring for.
The brand name "Oyin" is a nod to their roots (haircare pun not intended), named after the Yoruba word for “honey.” You can find them on Amazon, in Target, Whole Foods and more.
Childhood friends Pernell Cezar Jr. and Rod Johnson knew each other for twenty years before they decided to go into the CPG business together. They ponied up their savings - $22,000 - to build their coffee brand in Cezar's garage in Des Moines, Iowa, using a single tabletop roaster, build their website, and attend trade shows.
That investment and scrappiness paid off, because by 2020 BLK & Bold coffee was available at some of the nation's largest retailers - Target, Amazon, and Whole Foods, and they've since gone on to collaborate with organizations like Ben & Jerry's (for the "Change is Brewing" flavor), the NBA, and Marvel's Black Panther.
Their mission extends beyond coffee, pledging 5% of gross profits to nonprofit organizations that support under-resourced youth to promote literacy, workforce development, and more.
When Brooklyn native Ibraheem Basir founded A Dozen Cousins, he was drawing from his family culinary legacy of Creole, Caribbean, and Latin American background. He was also drawing from a successful career in CPG at General Mills, where he had worked as a brand manager before founding his own brand in 2018.
A Dozen Cousins exploded in popularity as consumers discovered a convenient food that was also made with higher-quality, healthier ingredients. In 2025, that growth was recognized and rewarded even further when Verde Valley Foods acquired the brand, with Ibraheem staying on as general manager.
You can find A Dozen Cousins beans, bone broth rices, and seasoning sauces at retailers nationwide including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Fresh Market, Publix, Meijer, Target, Walmart, Kroger, Thrive Market, Wegmans and more.
If you're a US-based consumer who has tried fonio before, chances are you have visited a local West African restaurant, have traveled to West Africa, you are West-African yourself - or you've bought Yolélé at the grocery store.
Although this "super grain" may yet be unfamiliar to many here in the US, it's a staple grown across Africa’s Sahel region and has been enjoyed by millions of African families for generations. For Senegalese-American chef and Yolélé president and co-founder Pierre Thiam, it only made sense to bring this easy-to-cook, nutrient-dense food to the US market.
Want to learn more about fonio? Pick up a package of Yolélé at your local Whole Foods and start cooking - with Pierre's expert guidance. Yolélé’s website contains an entire section dedicated to recipes for everything from fonio cheesy grits to fonio plum torte. You’ve been warned–you will leave hungry.
Learn more about how Yolélé uses consumer testing with Highlight to give them the data they need to create products people love.
Myles Powell knows good mac & cheese - and he's got the product to prove it.
Myles began his journey as a CPG entrepreneur selling a line of sauces and a gluten-free mac and cheese at farmer's markets and a few local retailers. In 2018, he joined the Union Kitchen Accelerator where he expanded his product line, scaled production, and won distribution at Whole Foods, GIANT Foods, Target and more.
You can follow Myle's journey on LinkedIn or Myle's Comfort Food website.
For founder Gaïana Joseph, Papa Luc’s Provisions is about more than food - it's about celebrating and sharing what makes Haiti so special.
Named after her grandfather, a respected Haitian agriculturist, Papa Luc’s Provisions honors the richness of Haitian land and culture through pantry staples like hot sauce and honey.
Before launching their hero products, Gaïana used Highlight to run concept tests for packaging and product concepts, validating or adjusting her product plan based on honest consumer feedback.
You can be the first to know when Papa Luc's products are shelf-ready by joining the waitlist on their website.
Gaïana's grandfather and inspiration, Luc Dufleurant
Of course, ten Black-owned brands only scratches the surface of the tremendous contributions Black entrepreneurs have made and continue to make to the CPG world. With plenty of Black History Month to go - and a whole year of shopping yet to come - we encourage you to go out and discover new Black-owned brands that are building innovative products for unmet needs, filling category white spaces, and launching products that create delight for consumers everywhere.