Inc. Names MilkMate Founder Patrice Hayden Meagher to Its 2026 Female Founders 500 List

Inc.’s annual Female Founders list celebrates the nation’s most innovative women entrepreneurs, who collectively generated approximately $12.3 billion in 2025

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MilkMate Products, Inc., the company that pioneered Breast Pumping as a Service (BPaaS) with the first zero-setup, zero-cleanup workplace lactation solution, is proud to announce that Patrice Hayden Meagher has been named to Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500, an annual list honoring the most dynamic women business leaders in the United States. The honor recognizes founders whose bold ideas, resilience, and execution are shaping the future of their industries.

MilkMate replaces the fragmented, time-consuming experience of pumping at work – forgotten parts, unreliable spaces, daily hauling and cleaning – with the only all-in-one, fully managed solution that returns up to an hour to working parents and their employers every day.

The 2026 Female Founders honorees collectively generated approximately $12.3 billion in 2025 revenue and $12.2 billion in funding to date, underscoring the economic impact of women-led businesses across sectors.

Each year, Inc. editors evaluate applications through a rigorous, multi-round selection process. Founders are assessed on both quantitative performance metrics, including revenue growth, funding, sales, and audience size, as well as qualitative factors such as innovation, social impact, and brand momentum. The final list represents entrepreneurs who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and measurable progress over the past year. Previous honorees have included such game-changing leaders as Billie Jean King, Sallie Krawcheck, Serena Williams, and Emma Grede — all of whom have transformed their industries and broken barriers along the way.

“MilkMate was built from my own experience as a working mother who saw how unnecessarily difficult pumping at work could be,” said Patrice Hayden Meagher, founder and CEO of MilkMate. “Too often, the process includes a long list of hidden steps—bringing equipment to work, assembling parts, cleaning everything afterward, storing milk, and carrying it all home again. We pioneered BPaaS to remove those unnecessary and time-consuming steps entirely, giving working parents—and the organizations they work for—valuable time back every day.”

Honoree selection is also honed through the evaluation of the program’s advisory board, which includes Patty Arvielo, co-founder and CEO of New American Funding; Tiffany Dufu, president of the Tory Burch Foundation; Joy Mangano, co-founder and CEO of CleanBoss; Michelle Cordeiro Grant, founder and CEO of GORGIE; Sheila Lirio Marcelo, co-founder and CEO of Ohai.ai and founder of Care.com; and Melissa Mash, co-founder and CEO of Dagne Dover.

Over the past year, MilkMate has rapidly expanded as employers increasingly recognize the role the physical workplace plays in driving return-to-office participation, productivity, and employee engagement. As companies reinvest in office environments that support employee wellbeing, MilkMate achieved triple-digit year-over-year growth and maintained a 100 percent customer renewal rate, with organizations across industries adopting its turnkey lactation solution to better support working parents.

MilkMate’s first-of-its-kind BPaaS model replaces traditional lactation rooms with a fully managed workplace service. The system combines FDA-cleared multi-user breast pumps, ready-to-use pumping kits, modular lactation furniture with refrigeration, and managed inventory support to deliver a zero-setup, zero-cleanup pumping experience that keeps lactation rooms consistently stocked and ready for use.

By removing the unnecessary and time-consuming steps that surround pumping—from transporting equipment and assembling parts to cleaning and storing—MilkMate returns meaningful time to the workday. The system saves mothers an average of 15 minutes per pumping session, often giving working parents and employers up to an hour of time back each day, while significantly reducing stress during the return-to-work transition. 96.8 percent of users report a seamless return-to-work experience, helping employers improve productivity, support parental retention, and build workplaces where employees can fully participate and thrive.

“Each year, we are increasingly amazed by the extraordinary leaders on our Inc. Female Founders 500 list,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The honorees on this year’s list include innovators in AI, beauty and wellness trendsetters winning devoted fans, and nonprofit leaders making a real impact in their communities. Together, they’re showing all of us what trailblazing female leadership looks like.”

Several honorees will be featured in Inc. magazine’s Spring print issue, on newsstands March 17, 2026. To see the complete list of honorees, please visit: https://www.inc.com/female-founders/2026.

About Inc.

Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

About MilkMate

MilkMate is the pioneer of Breast Pumping as a Service (BPaaS) — a first-of-its-kind workplace lactation solution delivering a zero-setup, zero-cleanup pumping experience. Designed by working moms for working moms, MilkMate eliminates the barriers that make pumping at work unnecessarily difficult and time-consuming: forgotten parts, hauling equipment, assembling, cleaning, and unreliable spaces.

The turnkey system combines an FDA-cleared multi-user breast pump, ready-to-use breast shield kits, modular lactation furniture with refrigeration, and fully managed inventory and support services — elevating lactation support from amenity to competitive advantage. The result: up to an hour returned to working parents each day, reduced stress during the return-to-work transition, and a stronger path for employers to attract and retain top talent while meeting PUMP Act compliance requirements.