- TiE Dubai declared the winners of the sixth edition of TiE Women MENA 2025
- The MENA pitch finals took place on 13 October at Expand North Star, a part of GITEX Global at Dubai Harbour
- Sahl's founder, Ayesha Mansha of Saudi Arabia, was awarded the MENA winner
After MENA pitch finals on October 13, at Expand North Star as part of GITEX Global in Dubai Harbour, TiE Dubai, the regional chapter of TiE Global, announced the winners of the 6th edition of TiE Women MENA 2025.
Ayesha Mansha, founder of Sahl from Saudi Arabia, received the title of MENA winner while Rahaf Aldruby and Seem Alkabbani, co-founders of TarKeys, and were named runners-up. The winners received equity-free grants of AED 70,000 and AED 30,000 respectively.
This year's program engaged almost 200 licensed, women founded businesses with strong representation of industries such as compliance; AI; edtech; clean beauty; femtech and HR tech. After regional rounds across five tracks of the program
Five founders made it to the final round: Anisha Oberoi (SECRET SKIN, UAE), Ayesha Mansha (Sahl, Saudi Arabia), Mahra AlQubaisi (Elevation, UAE), Nesma Amin (Aziza, Egypt) and Rahaf Aldruby and Seem Alkabbani (TarKeys, Rest of ME track). Each finalist was matched with mentors for pitch refinement, business scaling, and final preparations.
The program aimed at women entrepreneurs, which was developed by TiE Dubai in cooperation with GITEX Global and Expand North Star, provides women founders with exposure to one of the widest tech ecosystems in the world.
Supported by e& life and ecosystem partners including Dubai Internet City, in5, Playbook, C3, AngelSpark, Plug and Play, Wamda, Astrolabs, StartAD, and various funds, accelerators, and incubators.
Co-chairs of TiE Women MENA 2025, Carlina Marani and Raed Hafez, pointed to the program’s purpose to fuel women entrepreneurs to create, grow and lead globally, and the ties to the UAE’s vision for sustainable, inclusive growth. Harrison Lung, Group Chief Strategy Officer at e&, highlighted the significance of mentorship, networking, and tangible opportunities for women-led startups.
Studies show that gender parity could result in a boost of approximately USD 2 trillion to the GDP of the MENA region, yet startups led by men receive on average approximately five more times funding than startups led by women.
Women lead less than 5 percent of businesses in the region today, although private-sector employment of women in the UAE increased by 23.1 percent in 2024.
TiE Dubai continues to support women entrepreneurs through networking programs, mentorship and funding access, and visibility bonus.
Ayesha expressed in a comment after her win that her award is not only a win for her organization but for the larger network of women founders in the region and that local products can be world-class.
.jpg "IIM – A: Nurturing Business Leaders of Tomorrow")
