Numi Organic Tea

Rank: No. 25
City: Oakland, Calif.
Web site
Chief executive: Ahmed Rahim
Workers: 39
2008 revenue: $12.5 million
2008 growth rate: 8.6%
Estimated 2009 growth rate: 24%

Brother and sister team Ahmed and Reem Rahim founded Numi in 1999. The company buys its organic teas directly from farmers in China, India, and South Africa, and it is committed to sustainability and fair trade. Ahmed got his start running teahouses in Eastern Europe. Reem, who is head of marketing for the company, is also an artist and she designs the graphics on the boxes. The company is committed to hiring locally, with 70% of its employees coming from the inner city. Numi also contributes to the city of Oakland in other ways: about 1% of profits from sales of its Puerh products, a line of heirloom teas, goes to local education. "It is really up to a business like Numi to take a stance," says Rahim. "We are in the inner city to create change from a grassroots level, and we have more power than anyone else to help the city become stronger."