Five MENA entrepreneurs to represent the region at TiE Women global competition to win equity-free US$100K

TiE Dubai has announced the winners from its regional MENA TiE Women pitch competitions hosted over the past few weeks. The 2022 winners include Bright Sign from Saudi Arabia, The Baby Garage from Egypt, Bahrain’s Clever Play representing the rest of MENA, Ruuq from Levant, and Iminclusive from UAE. These 5 MENA winners will join 34 others from around the globe to compete for the US$100,000 equity-free cash prize. According to Shameema Parveen, Global Co-chair of TiE Women, globally, the competition received 1362 applications from 42 countries

This year’s MENA’s regional competitions saw over 200+ applications from women-led businesses from 15 countries across five regions (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Levant and Rest of the MENA). The nominations were reviewed by a jury of renowned experts and successful entrepreneurs from within the TiE Dubai network, and 42 finalists were shortlisted from 10 countries, 20 cities and 13 different industries across all five regional finals.

Ashish Panjabi, President of TiE Dubai, pointed out, “We are very proud to see our (MENA) region featured really well. We had the largest number of applications to this year’s global competition and it was a tough job to whittle it down to 42 finalists and then choose just five winners to represent us. TiE Women’s pitch competitions not only raises the profiles of some outstanding women-led businesses but also closes the gap in funding for women-led businesses which we are all dedicated to bridge. There are more angel investors and VCs now focused on closing this gap, which is encouraging, and we hope the contributions of competitions like this one helps to change investment attitudes sooner rather than later.”

According to Parveen, the global finals, scheduled in India during the upcoming TiE Global Summit in December, will feature a few additional opportunities for the entrepreneurs. She said, "This year, in addition to the cash prize, we are creating a special Investor Connect program during the finals that will connect these women entrepreneurs with investors, giving them access to VCs and explore potential funding opportunities.”

According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), if women and men participated equally as entrepreneurs, global GDP could rise by approximately 3 to 6 percent, boosting the global economy by $2.5 trillion to $5 trillion. Wamda reported that in the first two months of this year, less than $6 million was invested in startups founded solely by women, while startups with both male and female co-founders raised $17 million in total, or 2.7 per cent of the $622 million raised in MENA.

In its third year, TiE Women is a global initiative dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs across the globe to come forward and speak of their entrepreneurial journey, share their innovative business ideas and be a part of the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.