If last year’s wellness innovators were largely about the quantitative self, this year’s honorees take a more empowering, individualized approach to self-care.
The mom and baby care brand Frida ventured into fertility, offering at-home insemination kits along with NSFW how-to videos for wannabe parents seeking help conceiving without doctors—or shame. Seed Health expanded its scope beyond digestion: Its first-of-its-kind VS-01 product helps bring the vaginal biome into its ideal state to stave off yeast and bacterial infections, typically within one menstrual cycle. Alice Mushrooms is taking formerly niche ingredients mainstream, inviting anyone to (legally) enhance their focus, libido, and resting state by eating a couple of pieces of chocolate.
In the fitness arena, Life Time Fitness emerged as a burgeoning wellness hub. Wahoo released a fully reimagined treadmill, with sensors that allow the machine to automatically match the runner’s pace. Stakt, which had already taken that old yoga mat and made it twice as thick, not to mention foldable (thus able to withstand anything from crow pose to box jumps), created a line of weights that twist together to increase their poundage.
And, recognizing that home is where we seek the safety and comfort we need to face the world at large, the fast-growing company Homecourt offers up a line of handsome, responsibly made products for cleaning and enhancing the rooms we live in. “Home care is self-care,” insists founder Courteney Cox, and she isn’t wrong.
1. Life Time
For becoming the everything place for fitness and wellness
When a customer joins one of Life Time’s more than 175 “athletic country clubs,” they are buying access not just to a fitness club but a third place—somewhere outside of work and home where they belong. The 34-year-old Chanhassen, Minnesota-based company has become a central part of members’ lives by blending the offerings of a traditional luxury gym with the amenities of a resort (pools, spas, and cafés), a coworking space (at some outposts members can rent desks and offices), and even a social club, with classes and groups for both kids and “active aging” older adults. In 2024, Life Time increased the number of pickleball courts it offers by 43% to become the nation’s largest operator, and it introduced an on-site medical concierge service that provides nutrition planning, chiropractors, hormone replacement therapy, and even GLP-1 prescriptions. Life Time members spend about $200 a month on average for access to its facilities—plus roughly $70 in additional fees. In 2024, the company brought in $2.6 billion, up 18% year over year.
Read more about Life Time, honored as No. 23 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.
2. Homecourt
For adding luxury to sustainable, nontoxic household products
Homecourt makes luxury household and personal care products that blend fine fragrance, cutting-edge science, and sustainable ingredients and practices. Founded in 2021 by actor Courteney Cox—whose iconic character, Monica Geller, on the ’90s hit show Friends, was herself a neat freak—the brand has distinguished itself from competitors by elevating eco-friendly housecleaning products into a sumptuous indulgence. And unlike other celebrity-backed home and personal care brands, Homecourt doesn’t use a contract manufacturer. It works directly with a skincare chemist (all ingredients in all Homecourt products are skincare grade and made in the U.S.) and a fragrance house on proprietary formulas, with Homecourt owning all the IP.
The brand’s anchor product is a room deodorant released in 2023; it’s made from powerhouse ingredients like zinc ricinoleate, yeast ferment, and charcoal that have been clinically tested to neutralize odors, rather than mask them. It’s also packaged in 100% postconsumer recycled bottles. The deodorant spray comes in four tasteful scents and represents the first luxury, sustainable, nontoxic room-deodorizing product. Allure featured the spray on its 2023 “Best of Beauty” list for fragrance.
It’s not just Monica-stans and other neatniks who have taken note: Homecourt products have scored rave reviews from Bon Appétit, Elle, Refinery29, Domino, and others. The company, which is profitable, reported that annual sales growth was up more than 100% in 2024, with a customer-return rate of 40% (versus what it says is the industry average of 16.7%). The products are now sold in Bluemercury and Nordstrom, with an international retail partnership coming in 2025. The company reports that 20% of customers have purchased Homecourt products more than five times. A line of body care products debuted in 2024, and this month, Homecourt entered another category with the launch of a patented laundry concentrate.
Read more about Homecourt, honored as No. 40 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.
3. Frida
For breaking taboos about women’s bodies
After disrupting the baby care market a decade ago with its “snot sucker,” and extending its taboo-defying mission to postpartum salves for new parents (e.g., iced maxi pads), Frida launched a line in 2023 that went even further: Frida Fertility. “Your whole life, you’re taught how not to have a baby, and then when it comes time to actually want a child, you find yourself at the dark depths of the internet trying to patchwork together a conception plan,” says Frida founder and CEO Chelsea Hirschhorn, herself a mother of four. Frida’s $50 at-home insemination kits include applicators and a semen deposit cup. The broader line adds supplements for egg and sperm health, ovulation tests, conception-friendly lubricant, and a first-of-its kind, collapsible urine-sample cup. (The full line is sold at CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens.)
But more radical than its products is how Frida showcases them. In April 2024, it launched a series of NSFW instructional videos on its subsidiary site, Frida Uncensored, featuring tutorials with a live woman demonstrating such things as “How to Cleanse Your Postpartum Vagina” that drew nearly a million impressions. A July post about the insemination product garnered 11 million views on Frida’s TikTok. Women flooded the comments with gratitude. By summer’s end, the brand had received 3 billion paid and organic impressions across outlets and gained nearly 10,000 new email subscribers.
Read more about Frida, honored as No. 48 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025.
4. Akita Biosciences
For having a nose for respiratory infection prevention
Akita Biosciences is working on noninvasive solutions to address airborne diseases. Developed by a team of Harvard biomedical engineers, Akita’s pathogen capture and neutralizing spray (PCANS) technology creates an eight-hour barrier, using a triple-action mechanism to capture airborne germs, block their entry, and neutralize them.
Launched in October 2023, its Profi Nasal Spray was initially commercialized as a cosmetic product for nasal hygiene, but preclinical, peer-reviewed data has shown it’s got potential pharmaceutical applications. Profi addresses the root cause of respiratory infections—namely that airborne germs enter through the nose—that Akita sees as an untapped gateway to better health through proactive, drug-free care. A single spritz of Profi in each nostril forms an eight-hour cleansing matrix in the nose, then captures pathogens before they can enter the body—we’re talking near-total protection against the germs that cause flu, COVID-19, RSV, and pneumonia.
Unlike other nasal sprays that contain drugs and may cause side effects with long-term use, Profi uses only inactive and GRAS (“generally recognized as safe”) ingredients approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
5. Stakt
For making workout mats and weights more versatile
Stakt, a fitness brand founded by two best friends, was launched in late 2021, but this year it’s really gaining strength: Projected revenue just surpassed $5.5 million, marking 175% year-over-year growth. Stakt’s hero product, the patented foldable two-in-one fitness mat, takes a yoga mat but makes it twice as thick and foldable section by section, so it converts to a block, which is commonly used for varied workouts such as Pilates, sculpt, HIIT, and incline and decline exercises.
In September 2024, the company introduced another fitness-disrupting product, its patented Stakt Weights—a grip-friendly system that lets you flex between 2, 4, and 6 pounds with a simple twist. While adjustable weights aren’t new, most models cater to heavy lifters. These are pretty to look at, comfortable to hold, and turn a gym staple into an accessible at-home tool for $98. Stakt’s first round of inventory sold out almost immediately, making up 11% of total 2024 sales. At the same time, Stakt has scaled its B2B efforts: Its mats and weights can now be found in more than 170 studios nationwide (up from just 10 in 2023). Recent partnerships with tennis brand Prince Sports and women’s clothing retailer Free People reflect Stakt’s growing profile in the larger culture.
6. Alice Mushrooms
For taking functional mushrooms mainstream
A little more than two years since its launch, Alice Mushrooms has helped transform mushrooms from a niche wellness obsession into a mainstream movement with its tin boxes of functional chocolates. In 2024, the brand doubled down on its mission to make mushrooms a staple in everyday life through new product launches, innovative collaborations, and rapid expansion; it more than doubled year-over-year revenue, reached more than 600 retail locations (including Bloomingdale’s), and became the No. 1 mushroom product at Erewhon.
Part of Alice’s recent success stems from the January 2024 debut of Happy Ending, a sexual-wellness-targeted chocolate product that combines adaptogens, nootropics, and mushrooms for both immediate and long-term benefits. By February, a sold-out collaboration with lingerie brand Fleur du Mal and the brand’s Happy Ending chocolate cemented Alice as a force in fashion, culture, and wellness. Meanwhile, culinary partnerships—like the Alice’s Happy Ending cocktail (an Alice-infused espresso martini) created for Dante’s, the 110-year-old “world’s best bar” in Manhattan’s West Village (and its sister on the West Coast)—brought Alice’s innovative products to New York and L.A.’s hottest spots.
Also in 2024, Alice closed a star-studded funding round with investors including Zac Efron, Kevin Hart, and Pedro Pascal. Meanwhile, Alice continues to demystify mushrooms through education and approachable branding.
7. Wahoo Fitness
For rethinking the treadmill to automatically match your movement
Atlanta-based Wahoo Fitness—which has been shaking up home workouts since the 2012 release of Kickr, its flagship smart cycling trainer that helped kick off the indoor cycling craze—is once again redefining what it means to break a sweat indoors. Founder Chip Hawkins, a passionate endurance athlete, has steered the company through a private equity buyout, a bank takeover, and now a dramatic comeback: In 2023 he bought back Wahoo with three partners, debt-free.
Under its new CEO, Gareth Joyce, a former Mercedes-Benz exec, Wahoo is charging into new territory for the company: running. Its Kickr Run smart treadmill (on sale in the U.S. market since October 2024) is a sleek, tech-packed marvel built for serious runners. Forget fiddling with controls mid-run; thanks to its first-of-a-kind RunFree technology, the treadmill dynamically adjusts the belt speed to match your stride in near real time, allowing you to maintain a natural, hands-free running form. Its energy efficient running surface is designed to mimic the feeling of a hard-packed trail and other terrains.
The $5,000 device skips the bulky screens and opts instead for integration with various apps, including Zwift Run, and docks for your smartphone or tablet, which future- (and idiot-) proofs the purchase. It’s also designed to sync seamlessly with other Wahoo gadgets, like the Headwind smart fan, which cranks up airflow based on your heart rate. The Kickr Run drew raves from reviewers at Triathlete and Runners World, which named Kickr Run Gear of the Year in 2024. From the opening of the waitlist until launch, Kickr Run racked up 50,000 sign-ups, which the company says captures 10% of the premium treadmill market in the U.S.
8. January AI
For using AI to model individual metabolic systems
Imagine knowing how a meal will impact your blood sugar before taking a bite. January AI, a metabolic health startup founded by Stanford’s Noosheen Hashemi and Michael Snyder, allows people to do just that. January AI’s year-old app employs generative AI trained on millions of data points (including demographics and the world’s largest food database) to accurately predict the impact on a person’s blood sugar of some 54 million different foods, empowering them to make smarter choices in grocery stores and restaurants. The app never requires a user to wear a continuous glucose monitor, though the company doesn’t position itself as a CGM replacement. Rather, it’s aimed at users who need help and guidance on their blood sugar levels but aren’t ready for, or don’t want to wear, a costly (and cumbersome) CGM. In a peer-reviewed study that the company conducted, people without diabetes improved their time “in glucose range” by 58%, while those with diabetes saw a 63% improvement; those users also lost an average of 10 pounds in 12 weeks.
Nestlé is now partnering with January AI to reimagine product development: The candy company believes that by observing metabolic responses from diverse populations—including individuals with diabetes, pre-diabetes, and healthy metabolisms—it and other food companies can test, tweak, and optimize recipes virtually. The result, should this initial evaluation lead to implementation: Improved glycemic responses, taste, and texture across thousands of food SKUs right at the factory starting point.
9. Seed Health
For considering the vaginal biome—and defending it against invaders
Seed Health is on a mission to use microbiome science to tackle some of America’s unmet health needs. Applying a biopharmaceutical approach to consumer health, Seed partners with scientists and uses rigorous research and clinical testing similar to drug development to create next-gen pre- and probiotics. Its flagship product, the two-in-one probiotic and prebiotic DS-01, has been clinically shown to support digestion, immunity, skin, and heart health. Its PDS-08 pediatric formula has been shown to boost gut and immune health in children.
Recognizing the vaginal microbiome as an under-researched frontier (only 4% of biopharma R&D is dedicated to female-specific conditions, according to the World Economic Forum), in 2024 Seed expanded into vaginal health with VS-01. The suppository is the first of its kind to demonstrate that a multi-strain vaginal probiotic can create a protective vaginal environment. In trials, 90% of participants saw their vaginal microbiomes dominated by Lactobacillus crispatus, the vagina’s most protective bacteria, within one menstrual cycle. In this microbial state, the vagina is less prone to yeast and bacterial infections. Products are now available on Amazon and at Target. Last fall the company reported seeing 500% revenue growth over the previous 36 months.
10. ZBiotics
For drawing on science to turn America’s sugar addiction into a gut-healthy fiber habit
Five years ago, ZBiotics released its Pre-Alcohol probiotic beverage, a wildly popular potion that it says breaks down the unwanted by-product of alcohol that’s most responsible for hangovers. In 2024, it brought to market another genetically engineered probiotic, Sugar-to-Fiber, which is proving to be a gut health game changer. Sold in packets, Sugar-to-Fiber converts table sugar into levan, a rare and beneficial dietary fiber that feeds your gut’s microbiome, that invisible ecosystem with an outsize impact on overall health.
Americans miss the fiber mark big time. While the average daily fiber intake lags at just 15 grams—half of the recommended 25 to 35 grams—this small-but-mighty product delivers up to 5 to 10 grams of additional fiber daily, helping close that gap by making more fiber available from foods folks are already eating. Unlike supplements that can overwhelm the body’s system when taken in one big dose, Sugar-to-Fiber delivers its benefits slowly, which is how the microbiome was designed to absorb fiber. ZBiotics has sold more than 100,000 Sugar-to-Fiber stick packs since launching the product in September 2024, entirely through its website (no marketing push or brick-and-mortar retail presence . . . yet), riding a wave of organic buzz and customer curiosity.
Explore the full 2025 list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, 609 organizations that are reshaping industries and culture. We’ve selected the companies making the biggest impact across 58 categories, including advertising, applied AI, biotech, retail, sustainability, and more.
