{"id":50065,"date":"2025-08-19T17:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T14:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/?p=50065"},"modified":"2025-08-19T17:49:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T14:49:51","slug":"standard-chartered-saudi-arabia-and-falak-investment-hub-select-ten-female-led-startups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/2025\/08\/standard-chartered-saudi-arabia-and-falak-investment-hub-select-ten-female-led-startups\/","title":{"rendered":"Standard Chartered Saudi Arabia and Falak Investment Hub Select Ten Female-Led Startups"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Standard Chartered, in partnership with Falak Investment Hub, has announced the selection of ten women-led Saudi startups to join the third cohort of the Futuremakers Women in Tech programmein the Kingdom.<\/p>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\">Program Details<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">This initiative continues to serve as a platform for empowering female entrepreneurs who drive innovation and contribute to the growth of key sectors across Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The programme is part of Standard Chartered\u2019s global Futuremakers Women in Tech Initiative and is supported by strategic partners including the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (Monsha&#8217;at), and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) Code Center, in support of enhancing the presence of Saudi women in the technical entrepreneurship sector.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Following a competitive application and evaluation process, ten founders were selectedby a judging committee in the presence of Nada Aljeffri, Chief Risk Officer, Standard Chartered Saudi Arabia, Adwa Aldakheel, Founder and CEO of Falak Investment Hub, HadeelFarasani, Women Entrepreneurship Team Leader, Monsha&#8217;at and Adel Alzakari\u200f, Digital Innovation Director at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\" data-start=\"55\" data-end=\"84\">Officials&#8217; Statements<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Mazen Bunyan, Chief Executive Officer&amp; Head of Banking and Coverage, Standard Chartered Saudi Arabia, stated:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cWe are proud of the Futuremakers Women in Tech programme and to witnessthe selection of these ten startups&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0HE e said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">&#8220;The applicants represent a wide range of industries and ideas, showcasing the depth of talent and innovation among female entrepreneurs in the region&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">He add:<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">&#8220;We have seen the programme go from strength-to-strength year-on-year, with an impressive 87.5% increase in applications this year, so I am excited to see what this edition will bring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Adwa Aldakheel, Founder and CEO of Falak Investment Hub, stated:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cThis selection marks a new phase of empowering women entrepreneurs in the Kingdom. We proudly support them with our expertise and network to develop promising tech startups that can create local and global impact.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The third cohort attracted 135 applicationsfrom 17 cities across the Kingdom, spanning 13 diverse sectors, resulting in a competitive acceptance rate of approximately 6.5%. Notably, 24% of selected founders are embarking on their first entrepreneurial venture, reflecting the growing enthusiasm among Saudi women to step into the tech startup ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The selected ten startups are:Makan Design,Interior Design, Artificial Intelligence (AI); Pixconvey, Smart Technologies; Wittify, Software as a Service (SaaS), AI; Talents Arena, Human Resources and Recruitment, AI; Decorist.ai, Interior Design, AI; SDM \u2013 HealthTech; Taawoni, Internship Management, SaaS; Aya, E-Commerce, AI; Hakiem, HealthTech; and Adel, LegalTech.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Over the course of eight weeks, the selected startups will participate in a rigorous acceleration journey that includes specialised workshops, one-on-one mentorship, and direct engagement with regional investor networks. The top three startups will also be awarded a total of USD 45,000 in equity-free grants to support their business growth and market expansion.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The Futuremakers Women in Tech programmereaffirms Standard Chartered\u2019s ongoing commitment to empowering Saudi women and youth and fostering economic inclusion in line with Saudi Arabia\u2019s Vision 2030 objectives.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">To date, the Women in Tech Saudi Arabiaprogramme has supported over 20 female founders and awarded more than $100,000 in funding since it launched in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Standard Chartered, in partnership with Falak Investment Hub, has announced the selection of ten women-led Saudi startups to join the third cohort of the Futuremakers Women in Tech programmein the Kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":50060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1810,1772],"tags":[9284,3602,9282,8192,9283],"class_list":["post-50065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fintech","category-startups","tag-adwa-aldakheel","tag-falak-investment-hub","tag-nada-aljeffri","tag-standard-chartered-en","tag-women-entrepreneurship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}