Day two of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity kicked off with a panel featuring Serena Williams, who has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles and is the founder of Serena Ventures. Williams was on a panel that also consisted of Catherine Casey Nanda, managing partner, Acumen America and Sheila Redzepi, chief communications and corporate affairs officer, Reckitt. The panel discussed ways in which a ‘healthier world’ can be built with an announcement from Reckitt mid-way through it and was moderated by Tania Bryer, broadcaster and anchor, CNBC.

It kicked off by discussing how a quarter of the world doesn’t have access to clean drinking water. However, this is changing as more healthcare entrepreneurs develop innovative solutions. But they don’t get the needed investment because most of them are women, stated Bryer before asking the panellists how can this change.

Revealing some numbers, Nanda said, “Our team has spent 20 years investing in entrepreneurs and have backed 100 businesses across different communities. The staggering truth is that only 2% of the funding goes to women, and what makes it shocking is that it’s not improving. That’s even though women-led businesses outperform other businesses by 35%. Today, women represent 90% of the frontline women workforce and understand the needs of the communities first hand.”

Adding to this, Williams said, “I thought I had misheard this number (of women-backed businesses with investments) when I heard it the first time.”

She went on to speak about how she always thought of herself as an entrepreneur, even during her sporting days.

“I grew up in a part of California which wasn’t the best area to grow up in. I had to find a way to grow. As an athlete, I showed up every day and created different brands for myself. VCs need to look at life as a bigger picture when they are looking to grow their business. They should know that it takes time and one has to get comfortable being uncomfortable – whether it’s investing in women or people who look like me. At the end of the day, we are the people making change in the world and looking at things differently,” she added.
 
Sharing how Reckitt has looked to help make change, Redzepi, said, “We have worked with organisations to mentor and skill companies across 13 countries. Local communities that are closest to the issues best understand the challenges near them. We work with these start-ups and hope we can help them do justice.”

Sharing an example of an investment made in Pakistan, she said, “It’s a country in which 20-22 million people lack access to clean drinking water. So we are working with Nida Yousaf Sheikh, CEO, Tayaba. The company has rolled out innovations to bring water into the communities. They have an air machine which converts humidity in the air to drinking water. This has a great health impact and provides economic opportunity as well.”

She went on to reveal the launch of Reckitt Catalyst, to address the world’s challenges in healthcare. 

The mission of it is to build a cleaner and healthier world. Williams is the initiative’s first entrepreneur-in-residence and will help mentor and support women leading these ventures. 

Williams stated that one of the reasons she has joined Reckitt for this cause is because she wants to change the narrative around business leaders who are ‘writing the cheque’.

“We believe in diversity. Sometimes funding is great, but we need mentorship and support too. We want to solve problems on a global scale. For far too many years we have been supporting different kinds of people. I want to empower women and want to change who is writing the cheque. We want to change the top of the funnel,” she said.

She went on to reveal that they have been working on this launch for more than two years and hope that it’s going to be impactful and just be the beginning of issues being solved.

“I have always played a solo sport. This is such a great opportunity to work together,” she added.

Nanda added that while they can expect some failures when founders have the right team around them, extremely successful stuff can be built.

The long-term goal for this initiative is to impact five million people globally with life-saving solutions by supporting 200 entrepreneurs across the world.