The Dubai Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs has officially launched the fifth annual TiE Women MENA Program 2024, an empowering initiative designed to support and elevate women entrepreneurs across the MENA region. The program includes UAE, Emirati, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the rest of the Middle East, underlining its commitment to fostering gender parity in entrepreneurship in line with government efforts.
Rohit Dev, President at TiE Dubai stated: “Through time, entrepreneurs have been the biggest changemakers and have contributed tirelessly to the world economy, progress, and human sustenance. Despite this, women-led businesses in the region make up less than 5% of all businesses and 2023 saw a significant drop in fund-raising for these companies. For over 21 years, TiE has promoted entrepreneurship in the UAE, and since 2020, its TiE Women MENA initiative has been empowering female entrepreneurs. Supporting regional governments’ mission to increase female business owners, we aim to equip women founders with the tools, knowledge, and networks necessary to thrive in today’s competitive business environment.”
The competition starts with an application phase that runs until June 1st, 2024. A panel of unbiased judges, including TiE Dubai Charter members, will carefully select the most innovative ideas from each of the five categories through multiple rounds of screening. These chosen finalists will then present their ventures in five intense pitch competitions. The winners from these contests will advance to the MENA finals, previously held at the North Star Expand at GITEX. Throughout the entire process, participants will benefit from mentorship sessions with esteemed industry leaders, financial advisory services, strategic coaching, practical business planning workshops, access to an online global accelerator program, and tips on delivering the perfect investor pitch. The competition will culminate in the Global Finals in December 2024.
TiE charter members like Ashish Panjabi, CEO, Jacky’s Electronics; Mahesh Jaishankar, Head of Strategic Negotiations MENA, Google; and Sanjay Babur, Founder of Bestinsurance.ae; Veena Munganahalli, serial entrepreneur and investor; Shabana Karim – Founder/CEO of House of Enspa and Shameema Parveen CEO of Edutech are some of the judges for the program.