Meghan Markle invests in luxury handbag line woven in Rwanda

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, continued her commitment to investing in women-led businesses with an investment in Cesta Collective, a sustainable luxury brand that weaves basket bags in Rwanda and finishes them in Italy.

According to Markle, initially I discovered the brand while performing on a regular basis activities: online shopping.

Markle told the outlet over the phone: “I spend a lot of time Googling, looking for brands. When people are online and looking or reading something, I try to find great new designers, especially in different territories.”

After Markle wore a Cesta bag to a May 2023 dinner she and Prince Harry hosted with Cameron Diaz, Gwenhett Paltrow and their spouses, the brand immediately felt the impact of the royal family’s fame. Cesta founder Erin Ryder said the effect of Markle’s co-signature was immediate and clear.

“We were on our way to Mexico to shoot a lookbook,” Ryder said. “We got off the plane, went online, and all of a sudden this one style that was kind of sleepy was completely sold out, and we had a ton of ‘back in stock’ sign-ups. We knew there had to be a reason they were selling so fast, so Courtney did some online sleuthing to find out. We had more sales in one day than we’d ever had before.”

Following that, Markle, Ryder, and Cesta’s other co-founder, Courtney Fasciano, struck up a partnership that resulted in Markle becoming the brand’s first outside investor in the summer of 2024. According to Fasciano and Ryder, Markle’s ownership stake is a minority stake, though they declined to say exactly what percentage or amount of funding she had.

Markle has reveled in her role as a trendsetter, she told the outlet. “In a time when I know there’s a global spotlight and attention is going to be paid to every detail of what I can and can’t wear, I’m supporting designers who I have really great friendships with and smaller, emerging brands that haven’t gotten the attention they deserve,” Markle said. “That’s one of the most powerful things I can do, and that’s just wearing, like, an earring.”

When it involves Cesta, founders Ryder and Fasciano are committed to responsible production and fair wages for his or her craftsmen. Despite selling their bags for lots of of dollars and generating about $1 million a yr, they continue to be the corporate’s only full-time employees and emphasize that profit is just not their primary goal. Like Markle, they need to take a position in women, however the Cesta founders also need to expand into recent markets and work with female artisans in developing countries.

Markle, for her part, believes her influence provides a healthy alternative to the competitive nature of business and calls herself a dolphin, not a shark.

“Investing in them helped me prepare for the chapter where I invest in myself,” Markle told .

Markle has called her enterprise capital initiative a “dolphin tank,” which works in a different way than “Shark Tank.” Markle’s portfolio now includes five to 10 brands that she says complement her American Riviera Orchard brand. Markle added: “It’s friendly waters.”