Bayer Foundation Women Entrepreneurs Award 2026 For Female Founders in Health & Food Security (€25,000 Cash prize)

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Applications are open for Bayer Foundation Women Entrepreneurs Award 2026. The Bayer Foundation Women Entrepreneurs Award is a 6-month accelerator for women founders building proven solutions in health and food security.

They are selecting 15 ventures across Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East to strengthen fundamentals and build investor readiness.

Bayer Foundation Women Entrepreneurs Award Benefits

This global accelerator combines funding, tailored support, and visibility to help you grow with clarity and credibility. As one of 15 awardees, you’ll receive:

Accelerator Program
- Access six months of tailored support to strengthen your business fundamentals, sharpen your financials and impact metrics, and prepare for investor-facing moments.
Sponsored Trip
- Travel to Amsterdam (26-30 October 2026) for Awardee Days and the Award Ceremony to pitch your venture, connect with your cohort, and celebrate your achievements.
€25,000 Cash Prize
- Receive €25,000 in non-dilutive funding to grow your business, expand your reach, and invest in what comes next with confidence.
Visibility and Recognition
- Share your work on a global stage through storytelling, media exposure, and video content that strengthens your credibility and reach.
Alumni Community
- Join the Bayer Foundation women-led alumni movement for peer support, shared visibility, and opportunities to collaborate beyond the program.
Join Impact Hub Network
- Tap into Impact Hub’s global network and expertise for local ecosystem support, founder connections, and opportunities that help you scale across markets.

Focus Areas

Health

Cardiovascular Health: Solutions that stop, detect, and deal with cardiovascular situations, particularly local weather-associated dangers comparable to warmth stress and stroke care.
Women’s Health: Solutions that enhance well being outcomes throughout the life cycle, from reproductive well-being to menopause and different ladies-particular situations.
Oncology: Cancer prevention, analysis, and therapy, particularly cancers that have an effect on ladies, like specialised drugs and genomic testing.
Healthcare Payment Options and Insurance: Models that enhance affordability and entry by way of financing, protection, and versatile fee choices for healthcare providers.
Community Health Workers and Digital Health Infrastructure: Tools and methods that strengthen final-mile care by supporting neighborhood well-being staff and increasing entry in underserved areas.

Food Security

Reducing Food Waste: Solutions that minimize meal loss and waste throughout manufacturing, storage, distribution, retail, and consumption from farm to fork.
Reducing Malnutrition: Solutions that stop and scale back malnutrition by bettering diets, micronutrient consumption, and access to nutritious, reasonably priced meals.
Fair markets and pricing: Models that enhance market entry, enhance transparency, and allow honest pricing and commerce for producers, consumers, and shoppers.
Increasing Smallholder Farmer Productivity: Technologies and providers that enhance yields, strengthen resilience, and enhance revenue for smallholder farmers.
Water Justice and Sanitation: Solutions that develop clear water and sanitation entry, strengthening meals methods, diet outcomes, and public well being.

Eligibility Criteria

You are a girl founder, co-founder, or senior chief with decision-making energy, constructing a enterprise past the idea stage.
Your enterprise addresses essential well-being and/or food safety challenges and delivers measurable impact for low- and middle-revenue communities throughout Asia, Latin America, Africa, and/or the Middle East.
Your enterprise has demonstrated traction, with annual income of as much as USD $1,000,000. You’ve confirmed your influence enterprise works, now you’re able to focus in your subsequent stage of development.
You function as a social enterprise (for-revenue with a social or environmental mission), a hybrid mannequin (no., n-revenue and for-revenue), or a non-revenue organization getting ready to launch a for-revenue entity within 12–24 months. Your organization has to be included on or earlier than 1 January 2025. Registered charities and sole merchants usually are not eligible.