Meet the Changemakers: Five Minutes with Grounded

Published 12 August 2024

Author
Emily Gordon-Smith

Our 2024 Stylus Changemaker, Grounded, was started after co-founder Alison Root lived in Kenya for a number of years “lamenting that safer cleaning products were either imported and expensive, or out of stock”.

Founded in 2016 after an “uphill battle to educate customers about the rationale for safer, more natural products to protect our human and environmental health”, the brand is now stocked in more than 80 supermarket branches in the country.

With 50+ products now listed on its website, another inspiration for its founding was Kenya’s vast wealth of agricultural opportunities. “We have so many naturally grown ingredients that are excellent for producing natural soaps,” said Root. “We were also inspired to leverage our local circular economy to use waste products (like citrus peels from local juice bars), and push our plastic suppliers to use 100% recycled plastic sourced and made in Kenya, not imported.”

Founded in 2016 after an “uphill battle to educate customers about the rationale for safer, more natural products to protect our human and environmental health”, the brand is now stocked in more than 80 supermarket branches in the country.

With 50+ products now listed on its website, another inspiration for its founding was Kenya’s vast wealth of agricultural opportunities. “We have so many naturally grown ingredients that are excellent for producing natural soaps,” said Root. “We were also inspired to leverage our local circular economy to use waste products (like citrus peels from local juice bars), and push our plastic suppliers to use 100% recycled plastic sourced and made in Kenya, not imported.”

We asked about how sustainability and wellbeing are built into the business, as they’re two bedrocks of our research at Stylus. “We’re a business rooted in people and planet with profit,” said Root. “This translates to everything from our hiring to sourcing to green manufacturing to the safest non-toxic products possible. We like to joke that we have a lot of values that make profitability harder, but that’s what it takes to grow a values-based business, and we believe that by building brand trust, we’re building a sustainable business that will succeed.”

As well as being female-founded (Root’s sister Megan is co-founder and CEO), Grounded is also female-focused. Root shared that “manufacturing, especially in East Africa, is a male-dominated space, so we’ve proudly built a team with female chemical engineers from local universities – many of them were one of a handful of women in their graduating classes. At the end of the day, we’re building a brand by women, for women.”

We asked about how sustainability and wellbeing are built into the business, as they’re two bedrocks of our research at Stylus. “We’re a business rooted in people and planet with profit,” said Root. “This translates to everything from our hiring to sourcing to green manufacturing to the safest non-toxic products possible. We like to joke that we have a lot of values that make profitability harder, but that’s what it takes to grow a values-based business, and we believe that by building brand trust, we’re building a sustainable business that will succeed.”

As well as being female-founded (Root’s sister Megan is co-founder and CEO), Grounded is also female-focused. Root shared that “manufacturing, especially in East Africa, is a male-dominated space, so we’ve proudly built a team with female chemical engineers from local universities – many of them were one of a handful of women in their graduating classes. At the end of the day, we’re building a brand by women, for women.”

The industry is changing, and with this comes both challenges and opportunities for the brand. Grounded is proud to be the first full line of non-toxic cleaning and personal care products on the market in Kenya, and is committed to ingredient disclosure to empower consumers. “Over the past few years, we’ve seen a boom in the number of sustainable product companies in Kenya across a variety of categories,” said Root. “There are also more imported brands coming into the market – and while we dream of the day of ‘non-bio’ or ‘non-toxic’ categories in supermarkets, the category is still rather nascent.”

So what may the future hold? “In the next five years, we anticipate seeing more brands and consumer awareness coming into the East African market,” said Root. “Grounded will be continuously innovating to maintain our competitive advantage in the face of inevitable greenwashing and inauthenticity from competing brands. Our biggest opportunity lies in bringing Grounded to markets around the continent and abroad – we have enquiries from the USA, Singapore, Dubai and Europe.”

Stylus Changemakers is an annual programme that celebrates and supports young, small, innovative businesses with access to Stylus’ trends intelligence and consumer insights. The programme is set to welcome a new cohort of trailblazing businesses in January 2025. Interested? Follow Stylus on LinkedIn and Instagram to keep up to date. Applications and nominations will open this September.

The industry is changing, and with this comes both challenges and opportunities for the brand. Grounded is proud to be the first full line of non-toxic cleaning and personal care products on the market in Kenya, and is committed to ingredient disclosure to empower consumers. “Over the past few years, we’ve seen a boom in the number of sustainable product companies in Kenya across a variety of categories,” said Root. “There are also more imported brands coming into the market – and while we dream of the day of ‘non-bio’ or ‘non-toxic’ categories in supermarkets, the category is still rather nascent.”

So what may the future hold? “In the next five years, we anticipate seeing more brands and consumer awareness coming into the East African market,” said Root. “Grounded will be continuously innovating to maintain our competitive advantage in the face of inevitable greenwashing and inauthenticity from competing brands. Our biggest opportunity lies in bringing Grounded to markets around the continent and abroad – we have enquiries from the USA, Singapore, Dubai and Europe.”

Stylus Changemakers is an annual programme that celebrates and supports young, small, innovative businesses with access to Stylus’ trends intelligence and consumer insights. The programme is set to welcome a new cohort of trailblazing businesses in January 2025. Interested? Follow Stylus on LinkedIn and Instagram to keep up to date. Applications and nominations will open this September.

Alison Root
Co-founder, Grounded

“We’ve loved the insights from Stylus – especially as we grow and develop our brand, with an eye towards exporting from Kenya. It’s been great to keep tabs on what [the latest] consumer trends and preferences are, and exciting to see the global representation on Stylus. We’re very grateful!”

“We’ve loved the insights from Stylus – especially as we grow and develop our brand, with an eye towards exporting from Kenya. It’s been great to keep tabs on what [the latest] consumer trends and preferences are, and exciting to see the global representation on Stylus. We’re very grateful!”

Alison Root

Co-founder, Grounded