By Rafiq Vayani
DUBAI: The Dubai chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) has announced an extension of the nomination deadline for the TiE Women MENA Program 2023, a global initiative entering its fourth year, designed to empower women across the globe, including the MENA region, by providing support to enhance their leadership skills and grow their businesses. The nomination period has been extended until July 20, 2023, granting aspiring women entrepreneurs additional time to submit their applications and become part of a thriving community of successful women leaders.
The program is open exclusively to women-led or co-led companies. Women founders or co-founders should possess a minimum equity stake of 33% in their businesses, individually or combined. The companies must be licensed and actively operating within the MENA region. Entries from various stages, from early to late, are welcome, with the earliest registration date being January 1, 2016, onwards. The MENA finalists will be selected from categories including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Rest of the Middle East. This year, a special category has been introduced to recognise the accomplishments of Emirati women entrepreneurs.
The initiative’s main objective is to empower women entrepreneurs in the region and acknowledge their immense contribution to economic growth and innovation. According to a report from the Council on Foreign Relations, achieving gender parity in the GCC region could result in an astounding $812 billion addition to the GDP within the next three years. Additionally, Bloomberg’s forecast suggests that as more women enter the workforce, the global economy could experience a remarkable growth of $20 trillion by 2050.
The TiE Women MENA Program collaborates with community partners, including accelerators, incubators, NGOs, public and private organisations, such as in5, Flat6labs, plug’n’ play, Wamda, C3, and Livinc, to provide full on support through this programme to women entrepreneurs in the UAE and across the region. Through the pitching process, the shortlisted candidates will be supported via workshops and learning sessions with renowned and experienced industry leaders, mentors and advisors to help them nail their pitches and present business concepts as per top industry practices.
Underscoring TiE Dubai’s ongoing commitment to advancing women entrepreneurs, Veena Munganahalli, Co-Chair, TiE Women MENA commented, “At the very core of TiE, is the single overarching belief that entrepreneurs globally have been the biggest changemakers and have contributed tirelessly to world economy, progress, and human sustenance. With this belief in place, the TiE Women initiative was started to encourage, empower and help women entrepreneurs at every stage of their business to move forward and scale their ventures by providing a safe space to collaborate and network within the ecosystem of business experts, peers and investors alike. The TiE Women MENA program has been at the forefront of providing this support in this vibrant region where women entrepreneurship has been growing leaps and bounds in recent years. Applying to the TiE MENA initiative opens the doors to many opportunities like global access to mentors, peer collaborations and masterclasses with experts to name a few and all this at absolutely no cost to the entrepreneur. So do not hesitate to participate. Remember, by tying up with TiE, you always tie up into a world of opportunities and possibilities.”
Global and regional winners of the ‘TiE Women’ program will receive prizes and recognition for their accomplishments. The Global Finals offer a chance to compete for the global prize money of $50,000 equity-free. Last year, the MENA winners took home $35,000 on a prime stage at Gitex Northstar. The MENA participants will benefit from personalised 1:1 clinics, mentorship sessions, and guidance from industry experts, including TiE Dubai’s esteemed Charter Members. The initiative covers various pillars such as learning, access to funding, scalability, safe space, and community to equip participants with the necessary tools and resources for their entrepreneurial journey.
Hafsa Qadeer, Founder & CEO of ImInclusive and winner of the UAE category in 2022 commented, “This program has been incredibly helpful in my journey as a female entrepreneur. I have learned so much about business building, from marketing and sales to finance and accounting. I have especially appreciated the one-on-one coaching sessions, which have given me a chance to get personalised feedback on my business plan. I am confident that the skills and knowledge I have gained through this program will help me to succeed in my business.”
The TiE Women MENA Finals will take place from October 17 to 19, 2023, in Dubai, and the TiE Women Global Finals will be held from November 15 to 17, 2023, in Singapore. To submit nominations, startups can visit the program’s official website at www.tiedubai.org or directly access the application link here.
