T he number of Black-owned businesses in the U.S. with at least one employee topped 200,000 for the first time ever in 2023, a 62% jump from 2017, according to the latest report from Brookings Institution. Still disproportionately low, it’s an encouraging sign suggesting important momentum even amid an especially challenging economic and legal environment.

In honor of these employers and builders, F orbesBLK set out to find 25 Black-owned employer businesses worth watching. What we found was a diverse mix of firms from across the country and in a range of industries. These companies build stadiums and data centers; make such sausages and sauces; help people build credit or access healthcare; and are even trying to solve the memory chip shortage. Some of these firms have long histories and are being run by second or even third generation entrepreneurs while others are just starting out. Already employing more than 16,000 people collectively, these companies have bigger ambitions and dreams of a better future.

Here are the businesses to watch:

CO-OWNERS: Erin Tolefree, Cara Hughes LOCATION: Macedon, NY

This family business makes sauces, syrups, toppings, drinks, and fillings for the food and beverage industry and counts some of the world’s biggest brands including McDonald’s and Kellanova (now part of Mars) as customers. The company, which has $600 million in estimated sales, was founded by Eric Johnson who bought Baldwin Ice Cream in 1992 and later combined it with Richardson Foods, which he acquired five years later. —son of Johnson Products Company founders George and Joan Johnson—Johnson’s Johnson’s daughters, Erin Tolefree and Cara Hughes, are now co-owners after more than two decades helping build the company. Tolefree has served as CEO since 2023, while Hughes has served as Chief Customer and Community Impact Officer since 2024. Their grandparents George and Joan Johnson were founders of Johnson Products Company, which pioneered Black hair products like Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen.

CO-FOUNDER/CEO: Toyin Ajayi LOCATION: Brooklyn, New York

Cityblock Health, which primarily provides care for Medicaid and dual-eligible people in urban areas, announced plans in August to acquire tech-enabled rural healthcare provider Homeward Health in an all-stock transaction. Cityblock’s CEO Toyin Ajayi announced raising $116 million in a Series E funding at the same time. Cityblock, which says its revenue is up 77% year-over-year, now serves almost 200,000 members across the country while Homeward Health serves nearly 50,000. Prior to founding Cityblock in 2017, Ajayi was the chief medical officer of Commonwealth Care Alliance.

Coca-Cola Beverages Florida

FOUNDER/CEO: Troy Taylor LOCATION : Tampa, FL

As a former JPMorgan banker, Taylor got to advise on a big Coca-Cola distributor deal in 1995. A decade later he purchased the rights to distribute Coca-Cola in Florida, becoming the first Black bottler since businessman Bruce Llewellyn purchased a majority share of the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in 1982. Today his $2.2 billion (2025 revenue) bottler is one of the nation’s largest, serving over 20 million customers; the company has more than 5,000 employees.

FOUNDER/CEO: Todd Weaver LOCATION: St. Louis, MO

DGN Enterprise, which includes five companies under its umbrella including firms that specialize in electrical work, glass and fire suppression, expects to reach nearly $1 billion in revenue by year end, more than double its estimated $369 million in 2025 revenue. The biggest part of DGN is TW Constructors, which has been booming thanks to its work servicing and upgrading data centers for clients like Google. It’s also done construction for such customers as Washington University, St. Louis University, Pfizer and World Wide Technology. Weaver’s mentor, construction billionaire Bob Clark , lent him $150,000 loan to start his own firm, which he paid back in six months. Clark also introduced him to folks like David Steward of World Wide Technology, which is now one of TW’s top customers.

CO-FOUNDER/CEO: Wemimo Abbey, Samir Goel LOCATION: New York, NY

Credit building platform Esusu was founded in 2018 by Abbey, a Nigerian immigrant, and Goel, a first generation Indian-American, both of whom grew up in families that had no access to savings or credit. The pair, who met at the Clinton Global Initiative conference, eventually quit their corporate jobs at PWC and the United Nations respectively. I nitially unable to get backers, they funded the early business on credit cards. Today, the fintech has 190 employees, licensing agreements with major real estate investors including Blackstone and Freddie Mac and says it’s helped 12 million renters.

FOUNDER/CEO: Michael L.Thompson LOCATION: Pleasant Prairie, WI

One of the largest meat manufacturers in the country, Fair Oaks Foods supplies par-cooked pork, breakfast sausage and bacon to restaurants and grocery stores. It was originally called Fair Oak Farms (and before that Brooks Sausage) and was part of privately held global food processor OSI Group. But in 2018 it became an independent, minority owned firm run by Michael L.Thompson, who spent almost 20 years managing McDonald’s North American supply chain before joining OSI for 15 years. His son Michael J. Thompson, who joined in 2009, was promoted to president in 2023. In March, Fair Oaks Foods opened a new $134 million bacon factory in Iowa, which is expected to create 200 jobs.

CEO: Justin Bridgeman LOCATION: Olathe, KS

Former NBA player Junior Bridgeman built a fast-food empire that included more than 500 Wendy’s, Chili’s and Pizza Hut franchises at its peak in 2015. Then, in 2016, Bridgeman sold most of his restaurants for an estimated $250 million and used the proceeds to become a Coca-Cola distributor with a territory spanning Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. His son Justin, who joined the firm in 2017, took over in April 2025, a month after his father passed away unexpectedly. Heartland, which now has roughly $1 billion in revenue, is investing in more growth, having opened a $400 million, 700,000-square-foot production campus in Olathe, Kansas in 2025.

CEO: Michael Russell LOCATION: Atlanta, GA

The $500 million (revenue) construction management company has overseen major projects, including data centers in Virginia and Texas and an incoming $510 million facility in North Carolina. H.J. Russell is also credited with the construction of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons Mercedes-Benz stadium and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History.

CO-FOUNDER/CEO: Iman Abuzeid LOCATION: San Francisco, CA

Incredible Health brought AI to healthcare hiring. By automating matching, screening, outreach and interviewing, the company’s algorithm is helping combat nurse staffing shortages across the U.S. by finding qualified candidates for open roles. As of December 2025, 1.5 million nurses were using the platform, and over 1,500 healthcare employers. In March, Incredible Health announced an expansion of its AI hiring agent, Lyn. Co-founders Iman Abuzeid and Rome Portlock started the business in 2017; it has 70 employees and last raised nearly $80 million four years ago at a $1.65 billion valuation from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and former NBA player Andre Iguodala.

James Group International

CEO: Lorron James LOCATION: Detroit, MI

The logistics firm has grown from a trucking operation into a diversified supply-chain company offering transportation, warehouse assembly and sequencing services to major manufacturers and providers including Ford Motor and General Motors. Co-founder John James was the first Black American to secure authority for both intrastate and interstate transportation of goods in Michigan. Today James Group is led by his son, Lorron James, who has continued to expand the company, acquiring in June EnovaPremier LLC, which handles tire and wheel assembly for such customers as General Motors, Hyundai and Toyota. Thanks to that acquisition, combined annual revenue now exceeds $1 billion.

CO-FOUNDER/CEO: Debo Olaosebikan LOCATION: San Jose, CA

Started by a team of physicists and computer scientists in 2018, chip startup Kepler came out of stealth in September with what it believes is a solution to the memory chip shortage. The firm stacks computer memory into 3D chips to make AI infrastructure faster, cheaper, and more energy-efficient. A Nigerian immigrant who got his PhD in physics from Cornell, Olaosebikan is CEO of Kepler, which has raised a total of $468 million from such investors as Intel Capital and Bill Gates’s Gates Frontier Fund. The Department of Commerce also pledged $245 million in July.

CHAIR OF THE BOARD: Cheryl McKissack Daniel LOCATION: New York, NY

Founded in 1905, the family-owned firm has been involved in the planning, design and construction of more than 6,000 projects including the recent overhauls of LaGuardia and Kennedy airports. It’s also part of the partnership that was selected in September to be the project manager of the Washington Commanders stadium. Chaired by Cheryl McKissack Daniel, who bought the firm from her mother in 1999 and was CEO from 2000 to 2025, the company expects revenue to jump 30% this year to $118 million. The firm also holds a 2% ownership stake and serves as the project manager for Metropolitan Park, an $8.1 billion project that will add a hotel and casino to Citi Field in Queens, New York.

CEO: Jonathan Moody LOCATION: Columbus, OH

The largest Black-owned architecture firm in the country, Moody Nolan has 12 offices nationwide and employs roughly 290 people. The firm estimates revenues of $100 million by 2030, up from $87 million in 2025. Notable projects include designing the new arena for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers franchise and a $342 million science center at Morgan State University. Curt Moody co-founded the firm in 1982. His son Jonathan Moody succeeded him as CEO in 2020.

FOUNDERS: Jacob Fortinsky, Kelechi Ukah LOCATION: New York, NY

Novig launched nationwide as a peer-to-peer sports prediction market in August, validating a five-year journey by its founders, CEO Jacob Fortinsky and CTO Kelechi Ukah, to gain a foothold in the sports gambling industry. The business is named after the fact that it doesn’t charge a “vig,” the portion of a bet kept by the house at a typical casino or sportsbook. Novig also distinguishes itself from larger prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket by focusing exclusively on sports. Its controversial but attention-grabbing “Just Sports” ad campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney, who received an equity stake, attracted more than 60 million views on Instagram. In the first six weeks since its nationwide launch, Novig has surpassed $1 billion in total trading volume.

CO-FOUNDER/CEO: Kevin Caldwell LOCATION: San Francisco, CA

Ossium runs the world’s first bone marrow bank, in Indiana. While hearts and lungs must be transplanted within hours of the donor’s death, marrow doesn’t, which is how Caldwell hit upon this idea. He teamed with Erik Woods, a cryopreservation expert, to found Ossium in 2016. The firm, which has raised nearly $160 million, is now valued at $300 million. Meanwhile, its marrow has already been used successfully in 29 transplants, including its first pediatric patient, a 14-year-old boy.

CO-FOUNDER/CEO: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins LOCATION: Fairfield, CA

Promise is working to make government financial systems more equitable and efficient for the people who rely on them and the agencies that administer them. Founded in 2017 by Ellis-Lamkins and Diana Frappier, the California-based company’s technology helps its customers including government agencies, public-sector-focused institutions and utilities collect bills, distribute assistance and offer customers low-payment collection plans to combat predatory lending. The company, which has raised over $50 million from Jay-Z’s RocNation, Y Combinator and Kapor Capital among others, is now using AI automation to verify income and manage payments for utilities, taxes and parking as well as for qualifying benefits. It also has an AI Agent that is designed to speed up delivery of public benefits.

FOUNDER/CEO: Travis Mack LOCATION: Washington, DC

Travis Mack, a U.S. Navy veteran, started Saalex in 1999. What began as a small IT consulting firm has become a growing technology contractor working with U.S. defense and space programs. Revenue of the company, which has expanded in part through acquisitions including its 2024, $75 million purchase of Spalding Consulting, was $178 million in 2025, up 18% from the previous year. Saalex announced an expansion into Alabama in May, months after it was awarded a new missile defense contract. “We do a lot of threat scenario planning,” says Mack. “When the Army, Navy, or Air Force want to test the next version of the AMRAAM missile or any weapons platform, they usually come to one of the ranges we manage.”

FOUNDER/CEO: Josh Aviv LOCATION: Boston, MA

SparkCharge wants to make sure off-grid power is available anytime. It was the main reason it created the world’s first portable, modular, off-grid electric vehicle charging system. Developed by Aviv, who came up with the idea as a student at Syracuse University, SparkCharge has raised $75 million of debt and equity. The startup has attracted investors, including Mark Cuban and venture firm Collab Capital. Over the last two years, SparkCharge has been pivoting from consumer to commercial and also from exclusively powering EV fleets for businesses to mobile power stations. In August, SparkCharge announced that its off-grid power stations had expanded to the United Kingdom.

FOUNDERS/CEO/PRESIDENT : Songe LaRon, Dave Salvant LOCATION: New York, NY

Squire Technologies handles the operating systems for over 3,000 barbershops providing tools for booking, scheduling, payments and marketing. The firm, which brought in $70 million in revenue in the past 12 months, processed over $1 billion in payments in 2023. Songe LaRon, a former M&A lawyer, and Dave Salvant, a former banker, launched Squire in 2015 using $60,000 in savings. The fintech raised more than $150 million from investors including NBA star Stephen Curry and comedian Trevor Noah. Squire, which went through a few pivots from the Open Table of barbershops to the Quicken Books version to surviving COVID, now offers a Spanish version.

CEO: Oscar Horton LOCATION: Tampa Bay, FL

Sun State International is a full-service truck dealership that provides equipment, parts, and truck, bus and trailer purchases and rentals. The company also runs a parts-only store in Clearwater and is a leading supplier for Florida’s transportation industry. Sun State, which Horton owns, has $214 million in revenue and 210 employees.

The Anderson-DuBose Company

FOUNDER/CEO: Warren Anderson LOCATION: Lordstown, OH

The next time you order from McDonald’s or Chipotle, there’s a good chance Anderson-DuBose supplied the food. The Black-owned distributor provides frozen foods, paper products, produce and more to 400+ McDonald’s and 150+ Chipotle restaurants throughout Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia. The company is led by Anderson, a former journalist who was fired from his job in media. “I didn’t dream of being an entrepreneur,” Anderson said in a 2022 video interview. “I just knew after I got fired, I never wanted to work for anybody.” He and his partner Steve DuBose acquired distribution rights from supply chain company Martin Brower in 1991. Two years later, Anderson bought out DuDose. The company, which reportedly posted more than $800 million in revenue in 2024, opened a $40 million distribution center in Jefferson City, Tennessee and a $60 million center in Jacksonville, both this year.

FOUNDER/CEO: Leon Richardson LOCATION: Southfield, MI

The Chemico Group manages chemicals for leading automakers, with General Motors as its largest client. The $240 million (revenue) firm also provides a variety of chemical solutions to customers in the aerospace, electronics and healthcare industries. The son of a construction entrepreneur, Richardson learned to make chemicals in bulk while working as an industry chemicals sales rep. He started his own company using a $25,000 commission check. In 1994, Richardson bought Product-Sol, a paint chemicals company where he worked just before it went bankrupt.

FOUNDER/CEO: Warren Thompson LOCATION: Reston, VA

One of the nation’s largest food suppliers, Thompson Hospitality operates cafeterias for such corporate clients as Microsoft and Amazon as well as for 18 HBCUs. It also owns multiple fast-food franchises, including the Chick-fil-A inside Union Station in Washington, D.C. The $925 million (revenue) firm, which employs more than 6,000, expects revenue to increase by 8% this year. Thompson, 67, who owns all of the company, recently bought a high-end French restaurant, L’Auberge Chez François, near Washington D.C. with plans to test it and ideally expand the concept into high-end hotels.

CO-FOUNDER/CEO: Jordan Taylor LOCATION: San Francisco, CA

Taylor wanted to speed up the product-design process. So he left his job as an industrial designer at Nvidia to build software with his childhood friend Kaelan Richards. The pair, who first met in fifth grade in suburban Detroit, started Vizcom out of Taylor’s home in 2021, developing AI-powered software that can turn sketches into 3D designs. It’s now used by over 700,000 designers who work for customers including Ford Motor Company and New Balance. The company raised $27 million in Series B funding at a $180 million valuation in October 2025 to help deepen its domain-specific capabilities in automotive, footwear, apparel and consumer goods. “Vizcom started as a personal obsession,” Taylor has said, “Not a company plan.”

FOUNDER/CEO: Bruce Smith LOCATION: Auburn Hills, MI

Bruce Smith is betting that bigger can be better in today’s world of automotive manufacturing. To grow operations, he merged his Detroit Manufacturing Systems with Android Industries and Avancez in December 2025. It obtained a $160 million senior secured financing facility in January to help fund the deal. The newly combined $2.3 billion (revenue) group, now named Voltava, assembles cars and trucks for clients including GM, Ford, Stellantis and Toyota. Smith owns 100% of the firm, which employs more than 5,000.

In 2023, Forbes launched its ForbesBLK platform to champion and highlight business and community leaders in the Black Community. Since its launch, ForbesBLK has hosted three business summits in Atlanta, featured the World’s Black Billionaires , and published two ForbesBLK 50 lists, one on top financiers and another on top entrepreneurs.

To create our third list, the 25 Businesses To Watch list, Forbes spoke with numerous industry sources and organizations, including the National Minority Supplier Development Council, U.S. Black Chambers, and McKinsey & Company. We also consulted venture capital firms 645 Ventures, Base Ventures, Revolution Ventures, and Mac Venture Capital. The criteria used to make the final selections included revenue ($75 million to $2.5 billion), growth rate, longevity, and industry reputation. We targeted small to large firms, and legacy businesses with century-old roots and new ventures already getting traction with over 15 years in business required $75-100 million in revenue. Startups that didn’t hit the revenue minimum required a valuation of at least $100 million. We verified financials using company information, news articles, and third-party data from sources including PitchBook.