Winners of First BRICS Women’s Startups Contest Recognized in Moscow

A special award ceremony was held on 18 October for the 26 winners of the first BRICS Women’s Startups Contest as part of the BRICS Business Forum. Winners included innovative projects for energy industry and infrastructure automation, artificial intelligence in medicine, education, agriculture, manufacturing, and aerospace engineering, robotics, and new approaches to fighting cancer and infertility. The winning startups hail from 14 different countries and will receive media support from the BRICS Women's Business Alliance.

Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Russia's Sherpa in BRICS Sergey Ryabkov spoke of women’s important contribution to entrepreneurship: “These awards are a recognition of your tireless work, your talent, your ability to find business contacts, and the things you’ve achieved as a result. It is everything BRICS stands for. I congratulate you all on achieving so much through the Women’s Business Alliance.”

Companies from 30 countries took part in this first women’s business contest, with an international jury selecting projects from more than 1,000 applications received between June and October 2024. More information about the women entrepreneurs who participated in the contest can be found on the BRICS Women’s Entrepreneurship Platform.

Chairperson of the Russian Chapter of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance Anna Nesterova spoke of the importance of supporting the contest winners: “It’s our job to help the winners of the inaugural BRICS Startups Contest scale important innovative startups. The alliance ecosystem is here to help attract financing, enter new markets, and make joint multilateral projects a reality. International cooperation is an opportunity to share experience and knowledge, speed up technological development, and make women entrepreneurs more competitive in the global arena.”

The BRICS Women’s Business Alliance was founded in July 2020 and in just four years has managed to bring together an international community of women entrepreneurs and deepen cultural and economic ties between member states. Sberbank is the general partner of Women’s Business Alliance events, with Gazprombank acting as strategic partner.