Celebrating Female Entrepreneurship
This International Women's Day we are proud to share that our Founder, Amelia Carmichael, has been named as one of the UK’s most inspirational and dynamic female entrepreneurs by the f:Entrepreneur ‘#ialso100’ campaign. She's too modest to tell you but we want to shout about it from the roof tops.
She was honoured to be invited alongside an inspirational group of women to The House of Lords for a very special International Women's Day Celebration of Female Entrepreneurship. Find out more about this amazing campaign below and see what Amelia got up to at the House of Lords.
The f:Entrepreneur ‘#ialso100’ line-up particularly sets out to showcase trailblazing female founders who lead purpose-driven businesses alongside a roster of other responsibilities, such as volunteering, mentoring and community support. Indeed, Amelia was called out for her work with several charities including Little Village baby bank. 100% of profits from Auree Jewllery’s Rowfant Collection are donated to the vital work of Little Village where she volunteers on a weekly basis.
From adaptive fashion designers to female-run private security companies, social enterprise leaders and ethical product manufactures, this year’s f:Entrepreneur ‘#ialso100’ campaign celebrates inspiring and resilient female entrepreneurs that have flourished despite the challenges of the past years, with many still growing or starting new ventures. Many of the businesses featured in this year’s campaign also demonstrate a huge commitment to championing diversity and inclusion, as well as promoting sustainability.
Both f:Entrepreneur and Small Business Britain were founded by Michelle Ovens CBE, who is also the director of Small Business Saturday UK.
“It is so vital that we recognize and celebrate the phenomenal contribution that women running businesses are making across the UK, and the far-reaching, positive impact they are having, not just on the economy, but on wider communities too. The last few years have been hugely challenging for small businesses, yet despite this female entrepreneurship continues to grow and flourish in the UK, and is very much at the heart of the UK’s recovery.” said Michelle Ovens.
This International Women's Day we wanted to highlight some of the other '#ialso100' founders recognised in the campaign:
Maria O’Sullivan-Abeyratne
Maria is the founder of Adaptista, which aims to change perceptions of disabled people and disabled fashion within the fashion industry. Maria has several members of her family who are disabled and in 2015 she was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis, a rare form of spinal arthritis which is uncurable. When Maria was getting married in 2019, she found it impossible to find a dress that would suit her needs so went back to study Fashion Design and now has a patent pending for adaptive wedding dresses and evening wear.
Mahira is the founder of Spruce, an ethical homecare brand making award-winning low-waste refillable products. They are a certified B Corp with a mission to end single-use plastic waste and toxic indoor air pollution. Spruce’s refillable cleaning products are made with non-toxic, ethically sourced, vegan ingredients and fragranced with 100% organic natural essential oils and are completely free from harsh chemicals and single-use plastics.
Ruby Blaken
Ruby is the founder of Second Snuggle, which recycles children’s and maternity clothing, originally for their local community and now their reach has expanded to all of the UK. Ruby aims to rehome as many items of clothing as she can, and if she is unable to re-sell, then she sends the clothes to recycling. If clothing is still wearable but has not sold after a time of being on her website then they donate these clothes to people in need, including a local domestic violence charity. Ruby has also, alongside a local charity, started a community wardrobe to help anyone who needs help to keep warm this winter.
Nirali is the founder of Superfoodio, a plant-based snacks company that have launched the world’s first peanut butter buttons made with all-natural ingredients. Superfoodio is focussed on innovation, quality and being a purpose-led business that has a positive impact on people and the planet. The peanut butter buttons are made with less than six plant-based ingredients, contain no palm oil or refined sugars and are packed in recyclable packaging.
Laura is the co-founder of Gentlemen’s Scrub Club providing organic, vegan and natural men’s skincare housed in highly sustainable packaging, and packaging which is 93.4% biodegradable. The remaining 6.7% is made up of previously recycled plastic, with only a very small amount of virgin plastic. A tree is planted with every order, offsetting the carbon from her workforce and they are members of 1% for the planet.
Greta is the founder of Sweet Lounge, a vegan confectionery brand based in The Midlands offering high quality, non-compromising and delicious sweets with a large focus on environment, sustainability and animal care. Sweet Lounge aims to be Certified Carbon Neutral by 2024 or earlier. They look pretty too!
Amelia had such a fantastic day meeting all these women and listening to the day's speakers, Lucy Griffiths and Seema Malhotra. Amelia left feeling very inspired, what better way to spend International Women's Day!