A Dozen Cousins

What they do

A Dozen Cousins is a California-based natural food brand founded in 2017 by CEO Ibraheem Basir, who comes from a Brooklyn family of 10 children.

“I grew up in a Black and Latino melting pot,” says Ibraheem. With his mother’s Southern background and neighbors from around the world, the family ate a mix of Creole, Southern, Caribbean, and Latin foods at home. “There was Jamaican jerk chicken, biscuits…sometimes mom would come back from the laundromat with recipes on scraps of paper. My sister got a recipe from a classmate to make empanadas. We loved it.”

Ibraheem says he always knew he wanted to work in the food industry because of the joy food gave him growing up. “Food was the glue—conversation and connection,” he says. “It was an affordable way to celebrate: graduations, holidays, sports…”

After working on several natural food brands, he fell in love with the industry, but he noticed that few brands catered to the food and culture he was accustomed to.

When it came time for Ibraheem to launch a food brand, he knew two things: the palate he grew up with would inspire him to make those foods more convenient for the everyday kitchen, and he would call it A Dozen Cousins, in honor of his daughter, who is the “dozenth cousin” to Ibraheem’s 11 nieces and nephews.

He also knew A Dozen Cousins would combine his joy for food with his passion for health and sustainability. Ibraheem set out to create vegan, gluten-free, and nutrient-dense foods that are Non-GMO Project Verified. The brand centers around using wholesome, easy-to-recognize ingredients like beans, vegetables, and nutrient-dense avocado oil while avoiding genetically modified components and artificial flavors.

Knowing that healthy foods are not always accessible to all communities, the company also provides grants to nonprofit organizations working to eliminate socioeconomic health disparities across the U.S.

A Dozen Cousins’ microwavable, ready-to-eat pouches of rice, beans, and seasoning can be found online—at adozencousins.com, Amazon, Thrive Market, and Hungryroot—and in retailers nationwide including Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Kroger, Target, Costco, and Walmart.

Why we invested

Funds from Advance California will enable A Dozen Cousins to refinance a higher-interest loan and provide general working capital.