Women entrepreneurs are the key to inclusive economic growth, and top 20 GCC start-ups led by the women are testimony that the Arab World females have established themselves as business leaders, and are increasingly gaining recognition from financial institutions such as private equity, venture capital firms, angel investors, sovereign wealth funds and high net-worth individuals.
The GCC Women Entrepreneurship Report which was exclusively launched by Dash Venture Labs mentions that the trailblazing GCC females have created their niche; not only in ideating and launching, but also successfully running and leading their start-ups and businesses in a host of fields like logistics, services, food delivery, e-commerce, fin-tech, health-tech, agri-tech, crypto exchange, language solutions, gifts, online recruitment and others.
The report further claims that these enterprising women have ventured in overcoming against all odds including but not limited to accessing finance, full participation in public life and the issues with business ecosystem. These barriers appear at different stages of the entrepreneurial lifecycle.
Referring to the Council on Foreign Relations, the report says that GCC could add as much as $812 billion to their GDP in next three years by achieving a holistic gender parity in the region.
Of the top 20 female start-up and online businesses founders, at least three-fourth of the females belong to the UAE who have set and are running their businesses worth millions of dollars while the rest in the list belong to the GCC countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and others.
-Inputs from agencies
