BRICS Summit Highlights Women-Led Business Growth and Tech Innovation Opportunities
The BRICS Women's Business Development Summit highlights growth and investment opportunities for women-led tech businesses, with Brazil actively participating.
- • BRICS Women-Led Summit focuses on technology and investment opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
- • Brazilian delegation led by Ana Claudia Cotait aims to connect with international investors and share success stories like UpStarts.
- • Women lead 40.5% of businesses in Espírito Santo, mostly small enterprises in sectors with growth challenges.
- • Experts urge expansion into higher productivity and tech-driven sectors for greater scalability.
Key details
The upcoming BRICS WBA Women-Led Development Summit in New Delhi, beginning September 8, 2026, is set to focus on expanding women's leadership roles in business sectors dominated by technology and investment. This forum, preceding the 18th BRICS Summit, aims to enhance women's participation in STEM fields, digital innovation, startups, and access to capital.
Representing Brazil, a delegation of 19 members led by Ana Claudia Badra Cotait, president of Brazil's National Council of Women Entrepreneurs and Culture (CMEC), will engage in discussions about boosting women's leadership beyond participation—emphasizing their role as creators and business owners in tech industries. The Brazilian group plans to share success stories of initiatives like UpStarts, which supports women entrepreneurs, and seek connections with international investors to open new markets.
The summit will also explore India's advanced technology sector, with a particular eye on gaming, hoping to adapt best practices to aid Brazilian women's involvement in these high-growth areas.
Within Brazil, women hold leadership in 40.5% of active businesses in the state of Espírito Santo, according to a DataSebrae report. Most of these businesses are small-scale, with 94.4% classified as small enterprises (MEIs and MEs), largely concentrated in sectors such as beauty, clothing retail, food, education, and domestic services. While these sectors provide accessible entry points, experts like Ricardo Paixão, president of Corecon-ES, highlight challenges like intense competition and limited growth potential. Paixão advocates for women to venture into higher productivity and technologically intense industries that promise more significant expansion.
This convergence of international dialogue at the BRICS Summit and domestic insights from Espírito Santo underscores a growing recognition that empowering women entrepreneurs requires better access to training, credit, innovation, advanced technologies, and market opportunities.
Ana Claudia Cotait stressed the importance of women leading not only within existing businesses but driving the development of new products and innovations, reinforcing the summit's focus on transformative female participation in technology-driven industries. Ultimately, the BRICS WBA Summit aims to forge lasting partnerships that will help Brazilian women-led businesses scale globally, bridging local achievements with international opportunities.
This article was translated and synthesized from Brazilian sources, providing English-speaking readers with local perspectives.
