Back in 2006, Cartier ignited a core belief: “When women are given leadership opportunities, they can change the world.” This was the genesis of the Cartier Women’s Initiative, a global program dedicated to supporting female entrepreneurs who use business as a tool to drive positive social and environmental change.
By 2026, this journey marks a significant milestone as the program celebrates its 20th anniversary. This year also honors Thailand as the host of the annual awards ceremony, themed ‘Women Lighting the Path,’ emphasizing women as the bearers of future illumination.
Since its inception, the Cartier Women’s Initiative has upheld the maison’s core belief that when women lead, innovate, and create, they redefine the future. As the program evolved, its commitment deepened.
By its 10th year, the Initiative expanded its scope and fortified its foundation, transitioning toward a more strategic, long-term support model. Funding increased and new learning opportunities emerged.
The program’s role in shaping women’s leadership broadened further in subsequent years, adding award categories to enhance support for female entrepreneurs creating impact. The 2019 establishment of the Cartier Women's Initiative network underscored the program’s greatest strength: unity, shared experiences, and mutual inspiration among its members.
A pivotal advancement came in 2020 with the launch of the one-year Fellowship program, shifting the Initiative’s role from recognition to genuine capacity-building. This comprehensive program, grounded in mentorship, learning, and personal development, offers rigorous academic training, in-depth business coaching, executive leadership development, and essential wellness support. It transforms awardees into lifelong Fellows, nurturing a powerful community committed to collective growth. Thairath Money had the honor of participating in this historic journey.
Over 20 years, the Cartier Women’s Initiative has supported more than 330 female entrepreneurs from 66 countries worldwide, granting a total of $14.1 million (over 400 million baht) to businesses creating positive impact. The program has built a robust network of over 520 active members across nearly 80 countries.
Moreover, the Initiative plays a critical role in fostering sustainable growth among member businesses. Sixty-six percent of impact businesses remain operational; 9% have merged or been acquired. According to the 2025 member survey, 76% of the latest cohort increased revenue, 44% expanded into new markets post-funding, and 66% secured additional capital in 2024.
At the conclusion of the funding period, 97% of 2024 members reported increased confidence, 94% improved business skills, 94% stronger leadership abilities, 100% felt part of a global community, and 84% gained more than 10 valuable network contacts.
The event also featured the ‘Cartier Dialogues’ panel, providing a platform to exchange perspectives on current leadership challenges, adaptation, and collaboration across sectors.
In 2026, 30 entrepreneurs were selected across 10 awards—9 regional and 1 special category—to recognize and support women driving change globally.
. Cristina Campero Peredo, CEO and co-founder of PROSPERiA, leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent avoidable vision loss, addressing critical gaps in eye care across Latin America, where millions lose sight annually from preventable conditions like diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.
To tackle long wait times and specialist shortages, the company’s retinIA platform delivers clinically validated screening within minutes at primary clinics and workplaces without requiring specialized personnel.
Since launching, retinIA has screened over 150,000 patients—more than half of whom had never received eye care—and detected potentially sight-threatening conditions in 57% of those screened.
Beyond eye care, retinal imaging offers a non-invasive, personalized assessment of microvascular health. By analyzing retinal images, PROSPERiA is developing scalable early risk assessments for systemic diseases, including cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders.
Alba Forns, co-founder and COO of Climatize, has created a financial platform enabling the general public to invest in renewable energy projects, accelerating the transition to clean energy. Although climate change concerns are widespread, many feel powerless to act.
Meanwhile, small and medium renewable projects, especially in rural and underserved communities, face funding challenges and are often overlooked by traditional investors. Climatize bridges this gap by allowing individuals to support vetted clean energy projects with investments starting at $10, offering potential returns.
To date, the platform has raised over $14 million for renewable projects, engaging more than 3,000 investors. This support has helped avoid approximately 300,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the projects’ lifespans, turning individual concern into measurable collective impact.
In rural Nepal, many smallholder farmers face significant crop losses due to lack of processing technology, inefficient storage, and market access difficulties. These challenges force families to abandon farming for urban livelihoods.
. Prakriti Gautam founded Khetipati Organics, an agricultural processing company aiming to collaborate with indigenous communities and smallholder farmers to reduce food waste and sustainably strengthen Nepal’s rural economies.
By processing surplus and seasonal produce into dried fruits, powders, and high-altitude spices,
the processing creates stable income for farmers while providing consumers with clean, safe products traceable to their origins.
Since inception, Khetipati Organics has made tangible community impacts: processing over 320 tons of produce, significantly reducing food waste; working with over 1,600 smallholder farmers to improve local livelihoods; and creating more than 100 long-term jobs, mainly for women and youth, fostering resilient and economically prosperous rural communities.
Including Nkwa, a financial services platform from Cameroon helping individuals and small businesses in Francophone Africa achieve financial stability through disciplined savings and money management. Across the region, millions remain unbanked, relying on irregular income and informal savings groups, making planning, investing, and emergency response difficult.
Alice Ndeh, Nkwa’s Chief Technology Officer, explained that Nkwa transforms daily savings by enabling users to save via an app toward personal or business goals, creating transparent financial records based on real saving behavior. This helps users budget, track goals, and access responsible microloans when appropriate. By anchoring financial services in actual saving habits, Nkwa empowers users to maintain control over their finances rather than falling into debt cycles.
Since launch, over 70,000 users have saved more than $8 million through the platform, with thousands leveraging Nkwa to manage emergencies, invest in businesses, and build long-term financial stability.
Or even NanoFreeze’s technology, which Isabel Pulido, co-founder and CEO, describes as a natural cooling solution that can reduce energy use by up to 50%. The company’s biodegradable, reusable cooling materials maintain product temperatures for up to 200 hours (depending on insulation) without electricity, cutting losses during transport and storage.
NanoFreeze’s technology also applies to commercial and industrial refrigeration systems in facilities like food and beverage factories, data centers, and industrial sites. It improves thermal management, reducing energy consumption and operational failures. To date, NanoFreeze has preserved over $760,000 worth of food, saved more than 46 kilowatt-hours of electricity, and cut approximately 20 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
The awards ceremony Cartier Women’s Initiative award ceremony was held on 10 June 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand. Cartier chose Bangkok due to its rapidly growing, vibrant startup ecosystem, positioning it as a hub for entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, and creativity both in Thailand and internationally.
The top winner receives $100,000 in funding, while second and third place winners are awarded $60,000 and $30,000 respectively. Beyond funding, all 30 members benefit from a one-year support program.
Importantly, Cartier Women’s Initiative has opened applications for the 2027 program, closing on 16 June 2026 at 14:00 GMT+7.
In 2027, nine regional awards will be presented for Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Europe, Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, Anglophone and Lusophone Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, South and Central Asia, and Oceania. Additionally, one Science & Technology Pioneer Award will be granted.
Thirty members will be selected, representing the top three businesses from each of the 10 award categories. These visionary entrepreneurs will be announced and celebrated at the 2027 awards ceremony. Cartier Women’s Initiative award ceremony .
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