A MOTHER has revealed that she took a risk, quit her job and started a business whilst four months pregnant.
Now, a decade since launching, Katerina Schneider’s rakes in £183million a year.
Katerina Schnider started her business whilst pregnant and now, 25 million supplement bottles have been sold since her brand’s launchCredit: YouTube/CNBCMakeIt
Not only this, but the mother has raised £46 million in venture capital funding, with her products available nationwide at Target, Wegmans, Amazon and regional retailersCredit: Ritual.com
In 2015, newly Katerina, the founder and CEO of Ritual , started her wellness brand after struggling to find a clean prenatal vitamin.
That search kickstarted a nine year journey in which she created her supplement brand, a women’s company that is setting a new standard in the supplement industry through traceable and traceable sourcing.
Today, the company offers a range of multivitamins for men and women, but it all started with one pill – The Essential for Women 18 Plus Multivitamin, which launched in 2016.
Not only has Ritual raised £46 million in venture capital funding, but the brand also raked in £183 million in gross sales at the end of 2024.
As well as this, a jaw-dropping 25 million supplement bottles have been sold since the brand’s launch.
Revealing all to CNBC Make It , Katerina said: “I started Ritual when I was four months pregnant because I couldn’t find a prenatal vitamin that I trusted – we all deserved better, including myself.”
Now, Katerina, who was born in and emigrated to the US when she was just four-years-old, has a nine figure .
Explaining how her business was born, she explained: “I would say that the thing that had the most profound impact on how I thought about health and wellness was being pregnant.
“I never took a multivitamin before and here I was , and I had to take a prenatal vitamin, and there was nothing out there that met my standards.”
Instead of purchasing a typical prenatal vitamin available for women at the time, Katerina started taking vitamins like omega three, methylated folate, magnesium, and vitamin D.
Although lacking a professional chemistry background, Katerina leveraged her venture capital knowledge to get Ritual started.
She saw a “gap in the category” and in mid 2015, at almost four months pregnant and still working her full time job, Katerina pitched her soft vision for Ritual to LA based investors.
She shared: “A lot of the feedback I got was that is niche, pregnancy is niche, postpartum is niche, is niche, is niche.”
But Katerina eventually found investors with funding secured and quit her in May of 2015 to focus on launching the brand.
The future of Ritual is really tackling women’s health and empowering women with the education that they need around their bodies
Katerina Schneider
Katerina started reaching out to scientists on and hired Ritual’s first scientist in 2015. Not long after, she bought an “incredible branding agency” on board.
The mother then gave birth to her first daughter in November 2015 and continued her work towards securing funding.
In 2017, after one full year of business, Ritual brought in £3.6 million in annual net sales, selling only its multivitamin.
According to Ritual, the company became profitable in 2021 after surpassing £73 million in annual net sales by 2022.
Katerina saw a “gap in the category” in mid 2015Credit: YouTube/CNBCMakeIt
Ritual considers women the centre of its brandCredit: Ritual.com
Although its product line has expanded, Ritual still considers women the centre of its brand.
In 2022, Ritual began selling at Whole Foods and by 2024, its products were available nationwide at , and regional retailers.
Katerina gushed: “The future of Ritual is really tackling women’s health and empowering women with the education that they need around their bodies.
“I have three little girls that are growing up in the world where women’s health is underfunded, understudied and it just has a lack of investment and care.
“It feels really exciting to be building a brand that is on the forefront of that.”
Social media users react
users were stunned by Katerina’s success and many raced to the comments to express this.
Very inspiring story
YouTube user
One person said: “Congratulations to her. Brilliant products!”
Another added: “So inspiring! Feeling empowered to be starting a family and a .”
A third commented: “I absolutely love stories like this so much.”
Meanwhile, someone else chimed in: “Very story.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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