Hui works with rural communities around the world to digitise their cultural heritage into intellectual property for licensing. The former Fulbright student was concerned how cultural appropriation are creating a big loss for the talented artists from the these communities. To empower them, she started Roots Studio to bridge cultures and reverse cultural loss and appropriation.

See also: 4 Malaysian Female Artists To Watch

Verqo was established in 2018 to aid small farmers in Mexico who have difficulty getting access to financial support by offering them cashless credit i.e. tools and supplies that they need on their farms.

“It's a very easy process. It’s completely digital. Farmers can enter the platform, make the request for financing, and then choose everything they want to buy for their fields," says Rogacheva, who hails from Russia.

Through RatedPower, Barber aims to "digitise the renewable energy industry and maximise clean energy’s potential with a software as a service product that discovers the smartest ways to design solar energy plants and automates their engineering."

See also: This Tenacious Entrepreneur Foresees A Bright Future For Malaysia With Solar Energy

Dieng was shocked to learn that Mali doesn't have a thriving food industry despite a large swathe of the population depending on agriculture. Through Maya, she aims to change this by working with farmers to create local food products.

"We bring the spices, grains, and vegetables into our processing unit and turn them into products like breadcrumbs, chilis, sauces, salad dressings, and pancake mixes," she elaborates.

See also: Asia’s Most Influential: 250 Tastemakers Of 2021

Basima begins her video interview by making a sobering observation. "The Iraqi government can only provide 12 hours of electricity daily." This prompted Basima to look to solar energy as a sustainable solution and found Kesk, the first company in the country to offer green building solutions.  

Did you know that half the population in the world suffers from pill-related dysphagia, the difficulty to swallow pills? Huang personally saw how her grandmother had the same problem whenever she took her medicine. Frustrated that she couldn't find a viable alternative, she decided to create one: high-absorption candy pills, which Boncha Boncha manufactures. 

"We use nanotechnology to combine the nutrients with the candy to improve absorption, so the nutrient can be fully beneficial," she explains.

See also: 5 Female-Led Digital Platforms In Malaysia & The Women Behind Them

Percasky and her partners at The Better Packaging Co. are doing their part for the zero-waste movement by producing sustainable packaging, and communicating and educating about waste. "We are on a mission to reduce the environmental impacts of packaging and waste—it’s not enough to make sustainable packaging; we need to ensure it has a place to go at the end of its use," she says.

The recipient of Cartier Women's Initiatives' Science & Technology Award is the woman at the helm of a company that offers an innovative cost-effective modular on-site organic waste treatment systems to solve wastewater management in places that need it the most, from homes and small communities to large manufacturing plants. 

"Aquacycl technology uses naturally existing bacteria in waste water and create an environment for them to become dominant populations in our systems," Bretschger explains. "They generate electricity and treat the water at the same time, so we don't need an energy grid and a sewer grid."

See also: 16 Women Fighting For Fairness in Asia