Immigrants are a powerful force for good, adding their different insights, cultures, talents, and innovations to whatever country they move to. These gifts often help to shape culture, create new opportunities, and solve problems that non-immigrants may not notice or know how to solve. Here are some creative immigrant entrepreneurs who have built incredible brands and are working to make the world a better place.
Phil Libin
While he is most well-known for the once-ubiquitous Evernote, which was acquired by Bending Spoons in 2023, Phil Libin’s entrepreneurial journey actually started much earlier than that. He founded Engine 5 back in 1997, where he built some of the first online shopping cart solutions for e-commerce companies.
Phil immigrated to the United States as a child in 1979 when his parents came here as refugees from the Soviet Union and learned programming from their family computer. From there, his love of creating and programming grew as he learned how to solve problems with this skill set. His first three businesses were successfully sold, and the most recent two, All Turtles and mmhmm, are still under his leadership.
Toni Ko
If you’ve ever stepped foot in a drugstore beauty aisle, chances are good that you’ve noticed NYX’s eye-catching beauty displays. Toni founded this brand in 1999 out of her passion to close the gap between the drugstore beauty products that were in her budget and the high-end brands’ stunning formulas. Since then, NYX has become a staple in many people’s makeup bags, from their always-trending lip products to their skin prep dupes. The brand was acquired by L’Oreal in 2014, but Toni’s original mission remains: bringing fantastic formulas to drugstore shelves.
Toni isn’t the first entrepreneur in her family. After moving from Dagau, South Korea, to California with her parents at the age of 13, she cut her teeth in the world of beauty and business working at her family’s perfume and cosmetics store as a teenager. Her parents were also successful entrepreneurs and provided the seed money she used to start NYX.
Mike Krieger
Chances are, you’ve already checked Instagram today. If you liked what you saw, you can thank Mike Krieger, who co-founded Instagram with Kevin Systrom. Mike was born in Brazil and immigrated to the United States to study at Stanford in 2004, where he got the idea to make an app where people could check in with one another and share photos of their day-to-day lives. From that concept, Instagram was founded in 2010 and later acquired by Facebook in 2012 for a jaw-dropping $1 billion.
Alexia Akbay
While “cow farts” sounds like a silly problem to solve, it’s actually a serious one—they’re one major contributor to methane emissions. Alexia Akbay is a Turkish immigrant living in Hawaii who has developed a unique solution to reduce these emissions: a seaweed feed supplement. Symbrosia’s novel supplement, SeaGraze®, can reduce livestock methane emissions by over 90%.
Daniel and Steve Lee
These brothers were inspired to create a mental health app after watching their parents’ painful divorce. As Korean immigrants to the U.S., they recognized mental health stigma and a unique need for mental health support in the Asian community. Their app, Aura Health, offers users access to a broad content library from the privacy of their own homes. With help only a click away, they empower people to access mental wellness resources when they are struggling without many of the social and systemic barriers that prevent people from seeking professional help.
Maricel Saenz
While many crops struggle to adapt as climate change impacts their growth, Maricel Saenz decided to focus on two fan favorites: coffee and cocoa. Coffee beans and cocoa beans can only grow in a few countries worldwide, including Maricel’s native Costa Rica. Weather disasters have driven crops down and prices up in recent years, as shown by wholesale arabica prices doubling year over year in February 2025.
Maricel’s company, Compound Foods, works to create delectable coffee and cocoa products without depending on these increasingly expensive beans, building toward affordable and sustainable alternatives for the flavors we know and love.
Liz Claiborne
If you’ve ever shopped for women’s workwear, you’ve likely come across clothing from Liz Claiborne Inc. This company became a popular name in the industry in the 1980s, and when it broke into the Fortune 500 list in 1986, it was the first female-founded company to do so. Liz Claiborne was a motivated, creative entrepreneur and an immigrant from Belgium, where she spent the first 10 years of her life.
Nazim Valimahomed
Nazim spent many years working in food and beverage, but in 2016, he turned his attention to a different industry: banking. That was when he co-founded Kroo, a digital-first bank that aims to flip traditional banking on its head by benefiting customers and the planet, not just the bank itself. While Nazim was born in Uganda, he has called several different countries home over the course of his life, and is now a permanent resident in the U.K.
Beto Perez
While you may not recognize this entrepreneur’s name, you’ll certainly know the name of the business he co-founded: Zumba. When Beto forgot his usual tape of U.S. pop hits for an aerobics class he was teaching, he had to improvise with what he had, which was a mixtape of salsa and merengue songs from the radio and his familiarity with both aerobics and dance. It was a hit, and he later immigrated to Miami, Florida, and launched Zumba Fitness. Since then, this exercise brand has made movement fun with its inspiration from Colombian music and dance, from individuals following classes in their homes to full fitness studios.
