Applications are now open for the Regional Awards of the Cartier Women’s Initiative (fellows receive up to US$ 100,000 grant)

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Closing Date: 24 June 2025

Applications are now open for the Regional Awards of the Cartier Women’s Initiative (fellows receive up to US$ 100,000 grant)

Overview

The Regional Awards of the Cartier Women’s Initiative are looking for women-owned and women-led impact-driven businesses. Entrepreneurs across all sectors and geographies are encouraged to apply. Applicants with disabilities are encouraged to apply, and every effort will be made to include them appropriately.

Why Apply?

The fellows, representing the top three impact businesses from each of the nine regions, will receive:

FINANCIAL CAPITAL SUPPORT

US$ 100,000 grant for each first-place awardee
US$ 60,000 grant for each second-place awardee
US$ 30,000 grant for each third-place awardee

HUMAN CAPITAL SUPPORT

Human capital support is structured into a fellowship program, which includes a combination of 1:1 training and collective workshops.

Leadership communications and media training workshops
In-person INSEAD Women’s Impact Entrepreneurship Program
1:1 training in specific business areas
1:1 executive leadership coaching by The Women’s Impact Alliance

SOCIAL CAPITAL SUPPORT

Throughout the program, Cartier Women’s Initiative strive to highlight the social and environmental impact created by its fellows and bridge connections between women impact entrepreneurs and their supporters.

International exposure and media visibility
Support and mentorship by jury members during the fellowship
Access to a lifelong community of 500+ active community members
Ongoing support for the development of the fellows’ impact businesses

Eligibility Criteria

To be considered for the Regional Awards of the Cartier Women’s Initiative, the applicant and the applicant’s business must meet the following eligibility criteria:

Positive impact: The business should demonstrate that it has realized positive impact in its industry and that it has the potential to realize even more impact as it scales. It should contribute to at least one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations for the year 2030 as a universal call to tackle a range of social, economic, and environmental challenges.

For-profit: The business should be designed to generate sufficient revenue to support its operations and return some level of profit to its owners. Non-profit enterprises are not eligible. That said, the business does not have to be profitable at the time of application.

Early-stage: The business should have a proven business model and be in the initial phase of its development and growth (between 1 and 6 years of licensed/registered operations as of the date of application). This means that businesses applying to the 2026 edition must have been incorporated between June 2019 and June 2024.

Revenue generation: The business should be generating revenue from the sales of its products and/or services for at least 1 year as of the date of application, recurring according to your business cycle. For businesses applying to the 2026 edition, this means that they need to have been generating revenue since June 2024.

Fundraising: The business should not have raised more than US$2 million in dilutive or potentially dilutive funding (i.e equity, quasi-equity like SAFE or Convertible Notes) as of the date of application. Dilutive funding is any kind of funding that consists of a transfer of the ownership of your company at the time of the funding or in the future under specified terms. The Regional Awards cap the funds raised at the time of the application in order to ensure that the businesses selected fall within a similar range of development. Businesses that have not raised any external funding are also encouraged to apply.

Leadership: The applicant must be a woman and she must fill one of the main leadership positions, for example as CEO, COO, CTO, General Manager, or Managing Director of the business.

Ownership: The business must be majority owned by its founders and team members at the time of application. The applicant must be part of the founding team. Moreover, one of the following conditions must be met: (1) a woman or multiple women are the largest shareholder(s) of founder equity (not total equity), or (2) the applicant owns a share greater or equal to that of each of her co-founder(s). Sole proprietorships are ineligible for the Regional Awards.

Legal entry age: The applicant must be at least 18 years of age on the day of the application deadline (June 24, 2025).

English proficiency: A good command of the English language is required. Cartier Women’s Initiative require the Common European Framework of Reference Level B2 or above. This level requires an understanding of the main ideas of complex text, technical discussion in business and your field of specialization, and an ability to interact with fluency and spontaneity with native speakers. English proficiency is important because this is the common language for the Cartier Women’s Initiative team, its partners, the jury members and the overall community. Being proficient will allow the fellow to fully participate in the community and in the fellowship.

Time commitment: The applicant must commit to participating in the fellowship program from January 2026 to December 2026. Fellows will be expected to dedicate 1-3 hours per week to the fellowship program. In addition to the virtual training, fellows will be expected to attend one week of in-person events in April or May 2026. Beyond the fellowship, there are also two days of on-site filming of the fellow and their business in the first quarter of 2026. Fellows will also be required to report their impact for 3 years following the completion of their fellowship.

How to Apply?

To apply, you complete the online application and provide the supporting documentation listed below.

Compulsory

Your resume
Your business registration document
Your business’ capitalization table
Your pitch deck: Cartier Women’s Initiative is not looking for a specific format, just submit an existing pitch deck that accurately describes the impact of your business. This can be an investor presentation or a product presentation (no more than 15 pages max.).

Optional

Your business’ competitive landscape
3 additional attachments of your choice: theory of change/impact framework, impact report, image of product, brochure, press, article, research, etc.
These documents must be submitted with the online application and cannot be sent separately.

Selection Criteria

The selection process includes shortlisting, in-depth due diligence on the top five applicants in each region and presentation before the jury. The jury selects and ranks the top three applicants who become the fellows. Applications are evaluated according to:

Embedded positive impact

Cartier Women’s Initiative is looking for impact businesses that will create more impact as they scale and consider:

Intentionality: Was the business created to solve a social or environmental problem?
Embeddedness: Is positive impact locked into the business model?
Magnitude: Is there significant breadth (number of people: local to global) and/or depth (degree of change: marginal to transformational) of impact?
Measurement: Is the business tracking and managing to optimize impact?
Impact potential: Is the impact potential and/or already realized?

Market analysis and fit

Cartier Women’s Initiative is looking for businesses that have operationalized a unique solution to a large, unmet need and consider:

Product-market fit: Has the business provided evidence of the market?
Competitive advantage: Does the business have clear, long-term, defensible competitive advantage?
Expansion: Does the market have room for growth and does the business have potential to expand to other geographies?

Sustainable business and financial model

Cartier Women’s Initiative is looking for businesses that have the potential to be profitable and consider:

Financial sustainability: Does the business have sufficient financial return potential to reach profitability?
Scalability: Is the business model scalable (good margins, unit economics, repeat sales)?
Loyalty: Is the business likely to retain and upsell existing customers?
Well thought-out model: Are expectations (sales cycles, price setting, etc) and models well thought out and defensible?

Strategy and execution

Cartier Women’s Initiative is looking for businesses with a plan and system to scale and consider:

Growth strategy: Does the business have an expansion plan with clear goals and resource requirements?
Risk assessment: Has the business thoroughly evaluated risks and capabilities?
Monitoring systems: Does the business have dynamic mechanisms to monitor execution?

Team

Cartier Women’s Initiative is looking for a capable team to build the business and consider:

Complementarity: Is the team diverse, with 2-4 members who complement each other?
Technical skill: Does the team have relevant technical/leadership skills and experience?
Track record: Does the team have track record of execution and/or significant achievement?
Network: Does the team have relevant networks and advisors?

Leadership character of applicant

Cartier Women’s Initiative is looking for bold impact leaders, who can attract talent and foster purpose-driven team culture and consider:

Entrepreneurial spirit: Does the applicant display integrity, motivation and high energy, entrepreneurial approach?
Cartier values: Does the applicant display the following character traits: Curiosity, Open-Mindedness, Generosity, Sharing, Respect, Rigor, Independence?
Commitment to CWI vision: Is the applicant committed to the Cartier Women’s Initiative vision?