Boundless Futures Foundation has awarded $300,000 to six women-led businesses through its latest EmpowHer grant round, taking the foundation’s lifetime grant funding past $1.5 million since its launch in 2023. Each company will receive $50,000 to support businesses working across healthcare, environmental protection, sustainability, women’s wellness and economic empowerment.
The latest grants bring together six different business models, but each starts with a practical problem. Accelidea is working on medical technology development, Enspired Solutions is focused on PFAS destruction, RIES is tackling waste in beauty travel, Rif Care is building products for women’s wellness, ShopConsciously connects women artisans with buyers, and Tikal Industries is developing lower-carbon construction materials.
Six Women, Six Business Ideas
The newest EmpowHer recipients show how purpose-driven businesses can take very different forms. The six companies receiving the grants are:
- Rose Huang, Accelidea — Based in Boston, Accelidea uses artificial intelligence to streamline regulatory, quality and engineering work for medical device companies. Huang, a cancer survivor and MedTech leader, has helped bring more than 20 medical devices to market during 15 years of work with startups and Fortune 500 companies.
- Denise Kay, PhD, Enspired Solutions — Kay co-founded the Lansing, Michigan-based company to commercialize technology designed to destroy PFAS at the molecular level. Her background includes more than 20 years in environmental toxicology, ecological risk assessment and contaminant fate.
- Megan Graham, RIES — Graham founded the New York-based company to make travel beauty products more sustainable. RIES has developed a patented reusable airless pump bottle for prestige beauty products and launched in 2022.
- Valerie Emanuel and Rebecca Caputo, Rif Care — The Southern California founders are building products for women’s wellness, bringing together Emanuel’s experience in sustainability, wellness and ethical brand building with Caputo’s background in biology and diagnostic science.
- Mpho Hansjee, ShopConsciously — Hansjee founded the San Jose-based platform to connect consumers, retailers and corporate buyers with handmade and upcycled products created by women artisans across Africa. The company has expanded into physical retail, wholesale and corporate gifting.
- Tayyaba Ali, Tikal Industries — Ali, the company’s CTO and co-founder, is developing lower-carbon construction materials from industrial waste, including cement replacements and supplementary cementitious materials. Tikal uses modular micro-factories located near waste sources and the markets they serve.
The range is significant because the funding is not tied to one industry or one definition of impact. Each founder is addressing a specific problem through a commercial business model, whether that means improving medical technology workflows, dealing with environmental contaminants or creating new routes to market for women artisans.
Capital, Mentorship and Access
The $50,000 grant is only one part of the support offered through EmpowHer. Each recipient also gets access to an Advisory Circle made up of experienced female founders, with optional resources covering leadership development, skills building, mentorship and networking.
That structure matters for early-stage businesses because capital can help a company move, but founders also have to make decisions around operations, hiring, partnerships, positioning and growth. The Foundation’s model combines funding with access to people who have already worked through some of those challenges.
Boundless Futures Foundation says it receives hundreds of applications during each grant cycle from women founders across the United States. Its EmpowHer program supports early-stage, female-founded businesses that address social issues related to areas including poverty, hunger, humanitarian aid, sustainability and the environment.
A Growing Commitment to Women Founders
The latest grants take the Foundation past $1.5 million in lifetime funding to female founders and mission-aligned nonprofits since its launch in 2023. It has supported more than 50 female founders through Empower Her, alongside nonprofits through its Her Village grant program.
Soon Hagerty, co-founder and president of Boundless Futures Foundation, said the milestone also reflects the opportunity to invest in women building businesses around major social challenges. “Reaching $1.5 million in grants is an important milestone for our Foundation,” Hagerty said, while pointing to the wider opportunity to support founders creating businesses with lasting impact.
The six latest businesses make that approach concrete. Their sectors are different, their products are different and the problems they are trying to solve are different. What connects them is the decision to build a business around a problem that extends beyond the company itself.
The Foundation’s next EmpowHer application round is scheduled to open on November 1, 2026.