Top 5 women founders in the UAE

The startup world in the UAE might seem dominated by men, but there are a number of women who are the driving force behind some of the top startups in the region. Following are 5 such women founders in the UAE shown their strength in defying norms and leading startups to success—and have inspired a whole new generation of women establishing their own startups in the region.

Mona is a visionary leader who has been voted as the SME Executive of the Year 2013, one of the 100 Most Powerful Arabs in 2018, while also winning the SME Leader of the Year Award 2018, as well as many others over the past few years.

She is the founder of Mumzworld.com, the largest e-commerce portal in the Middle East dedicated to all things mother, baby, and child. Her company serves over 2 million mothers in the MENA region and ships to more than 20 countries. It has also won over 80 prestigious accolades in the past 7 years including The Small Business of The Year Award 2013.

The co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Sarwa, Nadine brings 14 years of marketing and management experience to her role. She has been a driving force behind the success of the Sarwa, which is doing very well in spite of not being as funded as the many others in the region.

However, a startup’s success is not determined by its funding alone. The best startups with the most potential in the world are those that are making a profit and managing to keep the business running with little outside support.

One of the key aspects of Sarwa’s success and Nadine’s vision is to bring investment opportunities to those with limited income as well as women, who have traditionally not been involved in financial investments. They also hold classes to help women understand the world of investments better and recently launched their socially responsible investment portfolio.

The sole founder of Sprii, Sarah has persevered to help the ecommerce platform to become the leading e-marketplace for mums across the Middle East. The platform now offers more than 300,000 exclusive products to cater to new and old mothers.

Recently, Sarah raised $8.5 million in Series A funding, coming in as one of the top 10 fundings in the first half of 2019. She has also managed to reduce customer acquisition costs by 20 times, while increasing reach and click-through rate by 10 times each.

With over 10 years experience in private equity with The Abraaj Group, Ghizlan is the first to tap into the potential $500 billion market of modest fashion that caters to women across religions and backgrounds who wish to dress in a more demure way

Her startup, The Modist, now has offices in Dubai as well as London. It recently raised undisclosed funds in its corporate round and is again doing very well as an online fashion marketplace.

Dana is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Lunch:ON, one of the leading startups in the food delivery sector. Recently, the startup was recognised as one of the 50 Hot Tech Companies Globally in 2019 by Crunchbase.

With a unique, yet robust business model, she is supporting the expansion of Lunch:ON to Abu Dhabi and other markets in the coming months. Look out for this one, she's on the track to making Lunch:ON a startling success.