PROGRAM
She Wins Arabia In-Depth Advisory Services for 5 High Potential Startups
About the Program
About the Program: details
She WINS Arabia is an IFC-led initiative that aims to facilitate access to finance opportunities for women-led startups from across the MENA region. The program was launched in the UAE in 2021, and since its inception, has provided capacity-building measures to over 170 women entrepreneurs and more than 35 Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) across the MENA region.
In November 2022, the second round of She WINS Arabia was launched at the 2022 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) with the goal to support 100 women-led startups and over 20 ESOs in MENA. This initiative is led by the IFC and the UAE’s World Government Summit in partnership with the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).
This year’s program has been heavily focused on creating linkages between women entrepreneurs and fund managers with the goal of financing women-led startups in the Arab world. To do this, the project included a series of in-person events and capacity-building measures over the next year, including two pitch competitions held in Dubai and Marrakesh in October 2023.
Focused Support for 5 SheWinners:
The IFC and Seedstars are joining efforts to ensure the growth and success of women-led startups in the MENA region. This initiative is geared towards making a lasting impact on the entrepreneurial journeys of 5 selected high-potential women-led startups.
Building on the success of the first phase, the core ambition of the program is to increase access to business and financing opportunities for the selected startups, supported by a strategically tailored capacity-building training program to address needed areas of support.
Selected via a highly competitive bid, with jury members amongst the most successful venture capitalists in the MENA region, the program is the ultimate launchpad for these exceptional businesses to learn, grow, and unlock impactful business opportunities.
Benefits
- Optimizing the business model and operations of 5 high-potential startups
- Accelerating the growth of each startup to propel them to their next growth stage
- Assisting the startups in securing investment for their next stage of capital needs
- Connecting the startups with domain and industry experts to receive relevant feedback and market insights and to help solve immediate business challenges
Application Timeline
Application Timeline: details
Start of the program
Nov 20th, 2023
End of the program
March, 2024
