TiE Dubai announced five regional winners in the TiE Women MENA 2026 program, who will compete for the final title in December at GITEX Global 2026. The announcement followed virtual regional finals held between September 8 and 17, with ventures participating from the countries track, the UAE track, and the rest of the Middle East and North Africa track.
Winners and tracks
Naglaa Mohamed, co-founder of P-Vita, won the Egypt track, while Lea Mehaweg, co-founder and CEO of Maison Safqa, won the Saudi Arabia track. In the UAE, Anuscha Iqbal, co-founder and CEO of Qanooni AI, won. The rest of the Middle East and North Africa track went to Rowan Alawi, CEO of Trase, while Aisha Alyassi, founder and brand director of SCULP, won the UAE track.
During Expand North Star at GITEX Global 2026, the five winners will receive dedicated exhibition platforms to showcase their companies to investors and other parties in the business ecosystem before competing in the regional final in December.
Growing participation and a clear focus on technology
The program attracted more than 250 licensed women-led companies, compared with around 200 companies in 2025. Of the applicants, 228 ventures were selected, and 46 of them then qualified to present their projects at the regional finals. The leading fields included artificial intelligence and software as a service, agricultural and food technology, medical technology, sustainability, and fashion.
The companies were evaluated according to criteria that included the idea, go-to-market strategy, team strength, competitive advantage, product-market fit, financial objectives, and operational and technical feasibility. Each finalist also received specialized mentoring to improve her pitch and market readiness.
According to the material, artificial intelligence appeared across multiple sectors, from legal services and livestock health to prenatal care and community platforms. Other projects focused on converting farm waste into fertilizers, recycling used yarn into textiles, and using smart sensors to achieve a reduction of between 30% and 45% in water consumption.
Why does this matter?
The significance of the results lies in the fact that they do not merely showcase a pitching competition, but also reveal the types of problems targeted by women-led startups in the region, particularly in water, healthcare, legal services, and sustainability. However, the figures cited by the program show that an expanding company base does not mean the funding gap has been closed; women-led startups received only $2.5 million during the first half of 2026, equivalent to 0.14% of the region’s total venture capital funding of $1.7 billion.
TiE Dubai says its program has supported more than 1,000 women-led companies in the Middle East and North Africa over the past four years, organized more than 350 pitches, and provided equity-free awards worth AED 380,000. The five mentors will continue supporting the winners in developing their pitches, market-entry strategies, and investor-facing materials ahead of the final.
The final result, as well as the amount of funding or partnerships that may arise from the opportunity to present before investors, remains undetermined in the material. The funding figures cited also reflect a general regional funding gap and, on their own, do not prove the five companies’ commercial success.