How Women-Founded Brands Are Shaping Tomorrow’s Aisles
The Local and Emerging Accelerator program (LEAP), which launched in 2022, fosters mentorship for a cohort consisting of emerging brands with Whole Foods Market experts. Through LEAP, Whole Foods Market provides tailored educational opportunities and gives participants the potential for direct financial support.
Encouraging emerging brands and giving them the necessary tools to reach success through this program creates a dynamic platform for innovation and enriches the shopping experience for customers who are just as passionate about taste and discovery as we are.
This year’s LEAP Early Growth Cohort is composed entirely of female-founded brands, which made for an environment of community, hope, and urgency as they grew and thrived.
“Fewer than two percent of all funding goes to female-founded businesses. And it’s even less when you have the intersectionality of a female-founded business with a black-founded business or whatever. Like that’s wild to me. And I think, I think the challenge there is human nature, right?”
Kelly Landrieu, Principal, Local & Emerging Brands, Whole Foods Market
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