Dubai SME And WOMENA Launch Programme To Empower Emirati Women

Dubai SME, the agency of Dubai Economy mandated to develop the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, and WOMENA have jointly launched the ‘Future Founders and Future Funders Programme,’ aimed to draw on venture capital (VC) as an enabler of entrepreneurship among Emirati women.

The programme targets university-level Emirati women who are at the start of their careers, to develop a strong pipeline of investors and entrepreneurs. As part of the MENA’s angel investing and entrepreneurial community, WOMENA believes that Emirati women have an important role to play as entrepreneurs and investors. A 2017 Crunchbase report shows that only 7% of decision-makers at US VC firms are women. Female founders make up 14% of MENA entrepreneurs (ArabNet 2017), and 10% of Emirati entrepreneurs (UN women).

The ‘Future Founders and Future Funders Programme’ was launched at the Women’s College in Zayed University, Dubai, and targeted women who were considering a career in finance or were interested in entrepreneurship. Over four weeks, the course ran two tracks; ‘Future Founders’ focused on enabling students to create a robust and innovative business. ‘Future Funders’ introduced finance students to venture investing, and enabled them to gain the skills needed to invest in startups or work with a VC firm.