In Italian, ‘Ricostru’ means ‘reconstruction,’ but designer Rico Manchit Au was constructing an entirely new notion of designer Chinese fashion when she launched her label in 2011.
Cartier Supports Trailblazing Female Entrepreneurs With Cash Grants and Personal Coaching
The Cartier company is renowned as a purveyor of fine jewelry for collectors who demand--and can afford--the very best. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have maddd love for women on the come-up. This March, Cartier announced the names of 21 female entrepreneurs from across the globe whose trailblazing business plans earned them a $30,000 cash grant plus access to individualized business coaching and entrepreneurial workshops.
Cartier has been running the Women’s Initiative Awards for almost 10 years, and of the 184 companies they’ve supported, the vast majority remain profitable and in business. So you wouldn’t be wrong to presume what the foundation’s 3000 annual applicants already know: when it comes to supporting women in business, the folks at Cartier seriously know what they’re doing.
All of Cartier’s trailblazing female entrepreneurs are profiled on the foundation’s website, but we’d like to highlight a few whose projects really rocked our world. Shout out to Emily Levy of Mighty Well (USA), whose own battle with Lyme Disease inspired her to create a fashionable and functional line of surgical garments to ease the delivery of intravenous medicines. Congrats to Saaya Nakayama, founder of SHE (Japan), a career lab and business incubator for women started in 2017. Kudos to 26-year-old Liza Velarde and her team at Delee (Mexico), which developed a noninvasive method for detecting cancer cells in patients which enables physicians to make more informed treatment recommendations. And hear-hear to 28-year-old Chebet Lesan (Kenya) who founded a company that makes environmentally-friendly charcoal briquettes. To these four women and Cartier’s 17 other finalists, we salute you!
And to female entrepreneurs across the globe who are looking for funding and guidance: get your business plans ready! Applications for the 2020 Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards open in a few months.
WRITTEN BY KAREN FRAGALA-SMITH
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