Since 2006, Cartier Women’s Initiative seeks to drive change by empowering women impact entrepreneurs, providing them with financial, social and human capital support to grow their business and build their leadership skills.

This annual international entrepreneurship program is open to women-run and women-owned businesses from any country and sector that aim to have a sustainable social and/or environmental impact.

Launched in 2006, Cartier Women’s Initiative has since supported 262 women changemakers hailing from 62 countries and has awarded a total of $6,440,000 in grant to support their businesses, all driven by a common conviction: Solving the most pressing global challenges.

Following the celebration of its 15th anniversary on International Women’s Day at the World Expo in Dubai last March, Cartier Women’s Initiative has been looking for ways to extend opportunities to more impact entrepreneurs around the world and ensure the program evolves alongside new developments in their global ecosystem.

Consequently, for its 2023 edition, the program is expanding with the creation of new Regional and Thematic Awards.

Regional Awards: The program is now covering 9 regions

In order to further increase its impact and refine its support to different regions, the program is expanding to 2 new regional categories: Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. 3 fellows will be selected from each of the 9 regions. Therefore, 27 awardees representing 9 regions across the globe: Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Europe, Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, Anglophone and Lusophone Africa, Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, South Asia and Central Asia, and Oceania will be announced in April 2023.

Thematic Awards: Launch of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award

In addition to the Science & Technology Pioneer award launched in 2021, a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award will be created to encourage entrepreneurial solutions designed to close gaps of access, outcome or opportunities for communities that have been underrepresented or underserved. While the other regional and thematic awards of the Cartier Women’s Initiative focus on supporting women, this pilot award is open to all genders.

Three fellows will be selected for each of these 2 thematic awards: Science & Technology Pioneer Award, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award. Therefore, 6 awardees will be announced in April 2023.

General Information For both the Regional and Thematic awards, the selection process is divided into two phases: Phase 1 in April 2023: The top three applicants of each of the awards are announced Phase 2 in May 2023: The jury selects the first-place, second-place, and third-place awardees who will be announced during the Cartier Women’s Initiative awards ceremony.

The first-place awardee will take home US $100,000 in grant, while the second- and third-place awardees will respectfully receive US $60,000 and US $30,000.

Finally, the 33 awardees (27 Regional Awardees and 6 Thematic Awardees) will all benefit from tailored mentoring and coaching, media visibility, networking opportunities and in-person INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Program and/or INSEAD Executive Education Program (pending admission based on INSEAD’s eligibility criteria and selection process)

The call for applications for the 2023 edition of the Cartier Women’s Initiative will open on May 16th2022 and close on June 30th , 2022 at 2pm (CEST).