Ann Lesley Cotton OBE is a Welsh entrepreneur and philanthropist who was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2006 Queen's New Year Honours List. The honour was in recognition of her services to education of young women in rural Africa as the founder of Camfed.
Acumen is a nonprofit impact investment fund based in the U.S. that focuses on investing in social enterprises that serve low-income individuals. Acumen was founded in April 2001 by Jacqueline Novogratz. It aims to demonstrate that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with business acumen, can result in thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Over the years, Acumen has invested $154.4 million in 167 companies and has had a successful track record in sourcing and executing investment opportunities in the clean energy, education, financial inclusion, health care and agriculture sectors.
A solar tuki is a rechargeable solar lighting system that is being implemented in Nepal to replace kerosene lamps commonly used by villagers. It includes two lamps that have white LED lights powered by an individual solar panel. In 2004, Engineers Anil Chitrakar and Babu Raj Shrestha collaborated with their respective organizations, Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness and Centre for Renewable Energy, to produce, distribute, and further the development of the solar tuki in Nepal. Their organizations sell the solar tuki systems, including solar panel, for US$28, and the individual lamp is sold for $11.
A solar lamp, also known as a solar light or solar lantern, is a lighting system composed of an LED lamp, solar panels, battery, charge controller and there may also be an inverter. The lamp operates on electricity from batteries, charged through the use of a solar photovoltaic panel.
Nusantara Development Initiatives (NDI) is a nonprofit social enterprise that focuses on women, technology, and social impact. Its flagship program, Program Rumah Terang Nusantara (Mothers of Light Program), aims to end energy poverty and create growth in Indonesian villages by training rural women to become solar lamp entrepreneurs.
Evans Wadongo is a Kenyan engineer, a partner at Wadson Ventures, the co-founder of GreenWize Energy Ltd, the founder of SDFA-Kenya, and one of CNN's top ten heroes of 2010. He is a graduate in electronic and computer engineering from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya.
Trish Costello is a Silicon Valley–based entrepreneur and investor. She is the Founder and CEO of Portfolia, a collaborative equity investing platform. She was named as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2014 by Goldman Sachs and Top Ten Women to Watch in Tech in 2015 by Inc magazine. She is recognized internationally for her pioneering work in educating and preparing venture capital investment partners, through the Kauffman Fellows Program. As the founding CEO and CEO Emeritus of the Center for Venture Education, she led the Kauffman Fellows Program for its first ten years. Costello was on the start-up team of the Kauffman Foundation's entrepreneurship center, where for eight years she directed its efforts in venture capital, angel investing, entrepreneur support programs, and programming to accelerate high potential women entrepreneurs. She played a leading role nationally in obtaining greater financial equity investments in women's businesses and in funding initiatives supporting high-growth women entrepreneurs.
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative is an American non-profit dedicated to designing everyday technologies for the global poor.
Little Sun is a nonprofit organization founded in 2012 to deliver affordable clean energy in Africa and inspire people to take climate action globally. It was established by the engineer Frederik Ottesen and the artist Olafur Eliasson.
Ting Shih is the founder and CEO of ClickMedix, a company that connects healthcare professionals and patients in developing countries with specialist doctors around the world, in order to achieve better healthcare. She is a 2012 laureate of the Cartier Women's Initiative.
Salinee Tavaranan is a mechanical engineer who specializes in solar power and other forms of sustainable energy. She is the project director of Border Green Energy Team (BGET) and the CEO and founder of the company SunSawang, making green energy systems available to remote populations. She received a 2014 Cartier Women's Initiative Award for her work providing renewable energy to remote areas in Thailand.
Leonora O'Brien is an Irish pharmacist and entrepreneur. Having worked in pharmacy regulation, she was the founder and chief executive officer of Pharmapod, a cloud-platform for pharmacists and physicians to monitor safety of dispensing processes and drive the safe dispensing of medicines. O'Brien has won a number of awards for her business endeavours and is a leading voice in the field of women in business.
African Clean Energy is a B Corp-certified enterprise which produces and distributes solar-biomass hybrid energy systems in developing countries. The company was founded in Lesotho, where it manufactures the ACE One Energy System. The company's headquarters are in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Laura Stachel is a former medical doctor who founded and leads We Care Solar, a nonprofit that manufactures and deploys solar electric systems the size of a suitcase for use in medical clinics in the developing world. She is also the mother of actor and singer Ari'el Stachel.
Women in Tech Africa (WiTA) is an organization with a focus on entrepreneurship expansion and multiplying the numbers of females in technology, especially in Africa. It was founded by Ethel D Cofie. Over the years, WiTA has strategically focused on enabling women to drive Africa's growth story and create an impact on personal life through technology. Currently, its target audience comprises aspiring female tech entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 40. Women in Tech Africa is the largest group on the continent with membership across 30 countries globally with physical chapters in Ghana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Somaliland, Germany, Ireland, Kenya, Tanzania and Mauritius.
Isabel Pesce Mattos, better known as Bel Pesce, is a Brazilian entrepreneur, best known as a writer and lecturer. She is sometimes referred to as "Menina do Vale do Silício".
Chinwe Ohajuruka is a green Architect born in Nigerian. She divides her time between Nigeria and the United States for projects. She became the Sub-Saharan African Laureate for the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards in France in 2015 for her contribution in affordable green houses and social entrepreneurship.
Unite to Light is a Santa Barbara-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to “manufacture and distribute efficient, durable, low cost solar lamps and solar chargers to people without access to electricity." As of 2019, over 120,000 lights had been distributed to more than 70 countries with the goal of improving education, health, and disaster preparedness.
Sairee Chahal is a technology entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of SHEROES, a platform that supports women entrepreneurs.
Lorna Rutto is a Kenyan ecopreneur, and founder of Ecopost, a social enterprise that manufactures fencing posts and other products from recycled plastic waste in offering sustainable jobs to people in marginalized communities and solutions to Kenya's plastic waste challenge.
