TiE Women names five founders for the Dubai final

TiE Women has named five founders who will compete for the regional title in December at GITEX Global 2026. TiE Dubai, the local chapter of TiE Global, announced the list after virtual finals held from 8 to 17 September. This is the seventh year of the programme. The five will also get a booth at Expand North Star, the startup show that runs with GITEX, where they can meet investors. A prize amount for this year’s final was not published. The track winners are Naglaa Mohamed, co-founder of P-Vita, for Egypt; Lea Mehaweg, co-founder and chief executive of Maison Safqa, for Saudi Arabia; and Anuscha Iqbal, co-founder and chief executive of Qanooni AI, for the UAE. Rowan Alawi, chief executive of Trase, won the rest-of-region track. Aisha Alyassi, founder and brand director of SCULP, won the Emirati track. Judges differed by track. Egypt’s panel included Angeliki Karayianni of Nokia, Dina El-Shenoufy of F6 Ventures and Haifa A, formerly of Riyadh Bank. Saudi Arabia’s included Abdulrahman AlJiffry of 500 Global. The Emirati track was judged by Lucy Chow of Pact Ventures, Saeed Alnofeli of in5 and Sönke Peters of Nokia. The field was larger than last year. The organisers said more than 250 licensed, women-founded businesses applied, up from almost 200 in 2025. They shortlisted 228 founders. Forty-six pitched in the regional finals. Sectors they highlighted included software, farm and food businesses, health, fashion and water-saving tools. Co-chairs Carlina Marani and Shameema Parveen said the decks were stronger and the sectors wider than a single theme, from Emirati food products to second-hand goods. Alyassi said the win pushed her to sharpen the plan for SCULP. Nokia, a partner, was on several panels. Danial Mausoof of Nokia congratulated the five and pointed to the visibility, not to a cheque. Over the past four years the programme has handed out 380,000 dirhams in prize money that does not buy shares. That total is not this year’s purse. The release also cited a hard funding gap: women-founded startups took 2.5 million dollars in the first half of 2026, which it put at 0.14 percent of 1.7 billion dollars raised in the region. A booth in Dubai does not close that gap. It does put five named companies in front of people who write cheques, which most of the 250 applicants will not get. The split of tracks is the part worth keeping. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE each have a winner, then a separate Emirati track, then a track for the rest of the region. A founder in Cairo is not scored against a founder in Jeddah. That is fairer to local markets. It also means the December title is a comparison across very different businesses, from a food brand to a legal tool, judged in one room. No revenue, no round and no headcount was attached to the five companies in the announcement. The 0.14 percent figure is the organiser’s framing of a half-year tally, not an audit of these firms. December can slip. A booth is not a term sheet. If one of the five announces a round after the GITEX meetings, the shortlist did the job the prize money has not. If the next note is only the title, count investor meetings held, not applause. The name to watch is whoever leaves December with a named backer.