At Expo 2025 Osaka, Cartier's Impact Awards Celebrate Women Entrepreneurs from Around the Globe
The high jewelry brand is busy this year, celebrating its 2025 cohort of awardees as well as the opening of its collaborative Expo 2025 pavilion in Osaka, Japan.
Cartier's Impact Awards Celebrate Women Entrepreneurs from Around the Globe
Cartier Women’s Initiative’s 2024 Cohort. Image: Mao Chung via Cartier Women’s Initiative.
While Cartier is certainly celebrated for its brilliance in jewelry and design, the brand’s deepest commitments are rooted in human innovation and the desire to do good at scale. Since 2006, the Cartier Women’s Initiative (CWI) has championed entrepreneurs working to solve the world's most urgent challenges, giving $12 million to projects so far. That’s in support of 330 entrepreneurs across 66 countries. Each awardee receives a $100,000 grant to continue scaling their life-changing work.
Unique to Cartier Women’s Initiative is the way the initiative goes beyond only providing funds. While each awardee receives a $100,000 grant to continue scaling their life-changing work, fellows also gain access to a vast network of mentors, thinkers, and business leaders who are eager to support their work through workshops, panels, and even one-on-one advisement.
Annual Reports Enhance Accountability
Accountability is essential in the story of development at the initiative. To this end, Cartier publishes an annual insights report, laying bare the state of entrepreneurship around the world. For some quick numbers, 64% of the impact businesses that fellows applied with are still operating and nearly 6% have been merged or acquired.
The annual report also enables businesses and individual to account for trends in entrepreneurship and even regional data that can set the tone for future development. The wealth of resources directly demonstrates the priceless contribution Cartier can offer. The radical transparency is truly unique.
Cartier Women's Initiative 2025 Impact Awardees
2025 Impact Awardees. Image: via Cartier Women’s Initiative.
The 2025 Cartier Women’s Initiative Impact Awardees come with a wide range of experiences and talents, representing seven countries and muiltiple industries, ranging from waste to safety. Here’s a look at the 2025 awardees:
Tracy O'Rourke (Ireland), the founder of Vivid Edge, which works to make energy efficiency simple and accessible for organizations. The company has already helped save over 36,000 tons of carbon emissions.
Kresse Wesling (United Kingdom), co-founder of Elvis & Kresse, which transforms reclaimed fire hoses and scrap leather into luxury accessories, already keeping more than 315 tons of waste from landfills.
Caitlin Dolkart (Kenya), co-founder of Flare, Kenya’s first on-demand emergency response network, slashing ambulance wait times from three hours to just sixteen minutes.
Kristin Kagetsu (India), founder of Saathi, a manufacturer of innovative biodegradable sanitary pads from banana fibers, reaching thousands of women while cutting plastic waste.
Yvette Ishimwe (Rwanda), founder of IRIBA Water Group, which has provided clean, affordable drinking water to over half a million people.
Rama Kayyali (Jordan), co-founder of Little Thinking Minds, a suite of digital Arabic literacy platforms that have already improved reading skills for over 400,000 students.
Mariam Torosyan (Armenia), founder of Safe YOU, a mobile platform supporting women facing gender-based violence. The program is already successful, helping prevent over 18,000 incidents to date.
Namita Banka (India), founder of Banka Bioloo, which installs eco-friendly toilets in rural areas and on India’s railways, bringing sanitation to thousands.
Jackie Stenson (India), co-founder of Essmart Global, which distibutes clean technology tools that have already improved over 1.4 million lives across rural communities.
Celebrating Entrepreneurship and Women’s Empowerment in Osaka, Japan
Accenting its globetrotting nature of the initiative, Cartier will host the 2025 Impact Awards in Osaka, Japan, as part of the festivities of Expo 2025 Osaka. Here, Cartier collaborated with architect Yuko Nagayama and Es Devlin to craft an immersive space that fosters dialogue and inspires change.
Officially opened earlier this month, all are welcome to explore a future where all individuals — regardless of gender — can thrive together. Don’t miss your chance to be part of this global movement.
Women’s Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka
Free. Located adjacent to the Japan Pavilion. Open daily 9:00AM to 9:00PM, Monday, April 13th until Monday, October 13, 2025. Information and tickets here.
To learn more about the Cartier Women’s Initiative and this year’s Impact Awardees, visit cartierwomensinitiative.com.
