Brianne West

Founder of Ethique – a regenerative global beauty brand; and Nous Labs – a $20M investment fund and mentoring for early stage start-ups with a purpose.

Since Brianne was a child she has been a passionate believer that business could solve many of the social and environmental problems facing our world. "I truly believe we can have a healthy, beautiful and awe-inspiring environment, with fairly shared equity amongst all, sustainable economic growth and that no one needs to be left behind. We just need to do things a little differently."

Brianne is best known for founding Ethique, but is also the co-founder of Nous, an impact investment fund. In 2020 she was named one of One Young World’s Entrepreneur of the year; ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ by EY in 2019; and a ‘Top 100 Global Thinker’ by Foreign Policy magazine in 2016.

While studying towards a science degree in 2012, Brianne reached the logical conclusion that with so much water found in our bathrooms there’s no need to add it to the likes of shampoo, conditioners, moisturisers, household cleaners and cosmetics, which are usually 60-95% water. By making these products solid and simply sending the active ingredients to customers, there’s no need for plastic containers.

Brianne founded Ethique in her kitchen. Ten years later, Ethique has prevented more than 25 million plastic bottles from being made and disposed of and prevented over 1,300,000kg of carbon emissions. Even better, Ethique is on track to make that number half a billion bottles, by 2030.

While a huge part of what Ethique does is about eliminating plastic bottles, the brand stands for so much more than that. As a regenerative beauty brand, Ethique is raising the bar for the beauty industry by demonstrating that business done when right, and done equitably, will change the world.

All products are certified vegan, cruelty-free, palm oil free and are wrapped in compostable packaging. Ethique is a 'Best for the World' B-Corp for five years running, is living wage accredited, works with fair trade cooperatives around the world and donates 2% of sales to non-profits through the newly established Ethique Foundation.

Nous Labs is a coaching, mentoring and investment fund with a twist - all companies we back are mission-led and working to solve social and environmental problems at scale.