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Number 53 on the 2025 list
Essie Bartels is a founder from Ghana, named to the AFN 100 in 2025 for selling more than half a million bottles of Essiespice's African sauces.
In May 2025 the US Chamber of Commerce reported that Essiespice, the sauce and spice brand of Ghanaian immigrant Essie Bartels, had sold more than half a million bottles. Her African-inspired sauces were then in 100 stores across the United States and Canada, including 50 Whole Foods stores in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, as well as on Amazon, with sales above US$200,000.