Cartier Women's Initiative Announces The Winners Of Its 2024 Edition While Also Unveiling Details Of Its Program Next Year This year's theme "Forces for Good" reflected the program's ambition to foster a more just and equitable world, iterating the importance of collective action to deliver change, for good.

French Maison Cartier has commended 33 female impact entrepreneurs as the winners of the 2024 edition of the Cartier Women's Initiative, an annual international program that aims to drive change by empowering women-led social impact businesses.

The awards ceremony, which was held on May 22, 2024, in Shenzhen, China, was hosted by writer and gender equality champion Sandi Toksvig, with it also featuring on stage Cartier CEO and President Cyrille Vigneron, supermodel, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Karlie Kloss, and Olympic diving champion and advocate for public welfare and environmental protection Guo Jingjing.

Cyrille Vigneron, CEO and President of Cartier (left) speaking at the Cartier Women's Initiative awards ceremony. Source: Cartier

This year's theme "Forces for Good" reflected the program's ambition to foster a more just and equitable world, iterating the importance of collective action to deliver change, for good.

The 2024 Cartier Women's Initiative awards were handed out across 11 categories, which included nine regional awards, and two thematic awards, i.e. the Science and Technology Pioneer Award and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award.

The first, second, and third place winners received US$100,000, $60,000, and $30,000 in grant funding, respectively. Beyond the financial rewards, these awardees also join the CWI Fellows community, which grants them access to tailored mentoring and coaching, media visibility, networking opportunities, as well as education courses from INSEAD.

All the winners of the Cartier Women's Initiative 2024 program. Source: Cartier

In the MENA category, the first place winner was Salma Bougarrani, founder of Morocco-based Green Watech, a platform which provides a soil-based filter system that treats domestic wastewater in rural communities so that it can be reused for agricultural irrigation.

The second place winner was by Rania Gaafar, founder of Adva, an Egypt-based company which helps self-employed and unbanked people get quick financing by connecting them with financing institutions offering low-interest rate loans.

Finally, in third place in the MENA category was Shahira Yahia, founder of Chitosan, an Egypt-based firm that empowers smallholder farmers to participate in the organic market and achieve higher income through new agricultural practices.

Salma Bougarrani, founder of Morocco-based Green Watech; Rania Gaafar, founder of Egypt-based Adva; and Shahira Yahia, founder of Egypt-based Chitosan. Source: Cartier

Commenting on the winners from the MENA region for this year, Sophie Doireau, CEO of Cartier Middle East, India, Africa, and Türkiye, said, "Our region is home to an incredible wealth of diverse entrepreneurial talent, and the applications we receive from dynamic women-founded small businesses are always impressive. I am delighted to welcome this new cohort of regional fellows to the close-knit Cartier Women's Initiative community. Each of the fellows selected is unique in her own way, and all are passionate about leveraging businesses as a force for good. They are collectively transforming the sectors they operate in and creating lasting impact in their communities; I can't wait to see what they will achieve as part of the Initiative."

In the South Asia and Central Asia category, the winners included Ira Guha, founder of Asan, which aims to address "period poverty" with a reusable menstrual cup, Mansi Jain, founder of DigitalPaani, which aims to build digital management tools that protect natural water resources from contamination, and Marina Tran-Vu, founder of Vietnam-based EQUO, that offers sustainable and plastic-free dishware, cups, and crockery, among other things. In addition, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion award was given to Akshita Sachdeva, founder of Trestle Labs, an entity that provides visually impaired people with access to education and employment through the Kibo device and app.

The winners in the Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa category included Victoria Munguti, founder of Heptapay, a Rwanda-based app which facilitates low-cost international remittances into mobile money wallets in East Africa in under one minute, Jessica Long, founder of MAAD, a Senegal-based venture which connects brands with small retailers through an e-commerce platform, and Isabelle Kamariza, founder of Solid'Africa, a Rwanda-based initiative which provides nutritious meals to patients in the country's public hospitals through a farm-to-fork approach and culinary arts schools.

In the Anglophone and Lusophone Africa category, the winners were Tutilope Adewusi, founder of 9ijakids, a Nigeria-based platform that offers affordable online educational games to supplement primary education, Claire van Enk, founder of Farm to Feed, which tackles food insecurity by buying surplus produce to support smallholder farmers and providing affordable food to vulnerable communities, and Jane Muchuku, founder of Plumbee, a food processing company that partners with rural female farmers and low-income women to provide underserved children with nutritious food.

A snapshot of the 2024 Cartier Women's Initiative awards ceremony. Source: Cartier

The ceremony also saw Cartier announce that the 2025 edition of the Cartier Women's Initiative will take place at the World Expo in Osaka, Kansai, Japan. Scheduled for May 22, on the occasion of the Women's Pavilion, the 2025 edition of the Cartier Women's Initiative will recognize nine impact awardees in categories that are based on the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals: improving lives, preserving the planet, and creating opportunities.

Through this special edition, dedicated to scaling impact, the Cartier Women's Initiative intends to underscore the critical importance of long-term commitment for impact-driven enterprises.

The full list of the 2024 Cartier Women's Initiative Awards can be found here.