Spadét founder Annabelle Santos

By Geri Stengel

When her two-year-old daughter developed severe eczema, Annabelle Santos did what people with a background in biochemistry do: She formulated a solution.

Drawing on a Filipino upbringing that treated nature as the first pharmacy and years of scientific training, she developed a remedy that worked—and word spread fast among friends whose children faced the same raw, inflamed skin. By 2014, Spadét—an all-natural skincare and wellness brand built around a proprietary olive oil glycerin—was a business.

Seventeen years later, Santos is in 25 Whole Foods locations across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, with institutional clients that include CUNY LaGuardia Community College, Columbia University’s Faculty House, and the Administration for Children’s Services.

She has not crossed a million dollars in revenue. Only about 2% of all women-owned businesses do. That gap—between what she has built and what the economy has returned to her—is exactly the story the data tell about Asian American women entrepreneurs.

Asian American women own 1.7 million businesses in the United States—10.6% of all women-owned businesses—and grew that number by 21% between 2022 and 2025, the second-fastest growth rate of any demographic group. Their businesses generate $355.8 billion in revenue and carry the highest average revenue per firm among all women-owned groups at $213,000.

Santos, who is Filipino American, summarizes her standing in the angel and venture capital financing conversation without softening it, “Asian American Pacific Islander people—we’re not even a data point. It doesn’t exist.”

That invisibility is structural, not incidental. Women own 40.6% of all U.S. businesses—15.7 million firms employing 12.6 million people and generating $2.8 trillion in revenue—but account for only 4.6% of total national firm revenue.

To read the entire article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/geristengel/2026/05/26/asian-american-women-are-starting-businesses-faster-than-almost-anyone/

Photo credit: @spadetwellness/Instagram