Thank you to all who submitted this year!

In its 6th year, the annual CircleUp25 awards honor the most innovative brands changing what we eat, drink, wear, put on our skin—and consume.

The list of winners are published in Forbes.

Winners announced: August 2 2018

Investors, deal makers and other luminaries help select the final 25 winners

Wayne Wu

Managing Director, 

VMG Partners

Amy Feldman

Staff Writer, Forbes

John Foraker

Co-Founder & CEO,

Once Upon A Farm

Kirsten Green

Partner,

Forerunner Ventures

Jeremy Smith

Founder & CEO, 

LaunchPad Group USA

Rebecca Kaden

General Partner,

Union Square Ventures

Jeff Klineman

Editor-in-Chief, BevNET

Trevor Hubbard

Executive Creative Director & CEO,

Butchershop

Marla Beck

Priya Venkatesh

SVP of Merchandising,

Sephora

Chuck Cotter

Chair of 

Food, Beverage, and Consumer Products Group,

Polsinelli

Bill Shen

Managing Director,

Encore Consumer Capital

CEO & Co-founder,

Bluemercury

Andy Friedman

Managing Partner, Pin High Capital; former CEO and Founder of Amplify Snack Brands 

Ben Felt

Managing Director,

The Invus Group

Carrie Wheeler

Former Partner,

TPG Capital

Deva Finger

 CIO & President, New Brands, 

Luxury Brand Partners

Jordan Younger

Founder,

The Balanced Blonde

Anarghya Vardhana

Principal,

Maveron

Josh Wand

Founder of ForceBrands

Ryan Caldbeck

CEO and Co-founder, CircleUp

Clare-Marie Hulsey

Vice President Global Research & Insights,

 The Coca-Cola Company

Alan Goldstein

Associate Director - P&G Ventures,

Procter & Gamble

Clayton Christopher

Co-founder & Managing Partner,

CAVU Ventures

Aashish Tripathi

 Head of Business, Amazon LaunchPad

Selection Process

Submit a nomination and tell us why the brand is one of the most innovative of the year. This year, all nominees must submit through our submission form.

We’re also tracking the #CircleUp25 hashtag on Twitter for nominations. Be sure to engage your fans on Twitter to boost your nomination!

Nominations will be narrowed by Helio, our machine learning platform that analyzes 1.3 million businesses across relative strength of brand, team, distribution and financial performance. For more on Helio, read about it here.

Qualification Criteria

Who is qualified?

Privately-held consumer and retail companies of any size  

Companies across the food, beverage, apparel, retail, restaurants, home goods, pet care and personal care categories

CircleUp alumni—you’re qualified to enter CircleUp25!

Who is not qualified?

Publicly-traded companies

Companies that have been acquired

Companies currently on CircleUp

Previous CircleUp25 winners

See past winners from 2017, 2016 , 2015 , 2014 , and 2013

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