Brazil Launches BRICS Competition to Boost Women Entrepreneurs & Innovation

• Brazil, the current BRICS president, has initiated a competition to promote female entrepreneurship
• The program favors women-owned companies that power economic development and sustainable innovation

In the context of its present BRICS presidency, Brazil is launching a new competition that will promote female entrepreneurship as a driver of economic growth and sustainable innovation. The competition seeks to highlight female-owned enterprises that offer useful and innovative solutions to challenges facing their communities and markets. Submissions are in until May 4, and should be submitted on the official website of Brazil's BRICS presidency.

The BRICS Women's Startups Contest 2025, inaugurated by the Brazilian presidency of BRICS and co-sponsored with Sebrae, the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), and the BRICS Women Business Alliance (BRICS WBA), has the purpose of encouraging and boosting women entrepreneurship in BRICS countries and member states.

Getting to a target 2,000 applicants, the competition calls women-owned entrepreneurs from the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the UAE. The partner nations that are eligible are Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan. Startups from Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zambia, or Zimbabwe are also welcome, if they either already operate in the BRICS markets or have sound expansion plans in the BRICS markets.
The competition accepts submissions in six broad categories:

Health and Well-being; Agriculture and Food Security; Education and Skills Development; Energy, Infrastructure, and Mobility; Trade, Services, and Digital Transformation; and Sustainable Development and Climate Solutions. There will be eighteen finalists who will be chosen to participate in a fully-funded technical mission to Rio de Janeiro between July 1 and 8. They will visit innovation centers, showcase their projects before investors and business leaders, and attend the BRICS Business Forum awards ceremony