Ayesha Mansha Wins TiE Women MENA 2025 Title at GITEX Global

• TiE Dubai declared the winners of the sixth edition of TiE Women MENA 2025
• The MENA pitch finals took place on 13 October at Expand North Star, part of GITEX Global at Dubai Harbour
• Ayesha Mansha, Sahl Founder from Saudi Arabia, emerged as the MENA winner

TiE Dubai, the regional chapter of TiE Global, has declared the winners of the sixth installment of the TiE Women MENA 2025 competition after the MENA pitch finals on 13 October at Expand North Star, which is part of GITEX Global at Dubai Harbour.

Ayesha Mansha, Sahl's Founder in Saudi Arabia, received the MENA title, while Rahaf Aldruby and Seem Alkabbani, TarKeys' Co-Founders, took the runner-up spot. The winners got equity-free grants of AED 70,000 and AED 30,000, respectively.

The program this year saw almost 200 licensed, women-founded companies, with considerable participation in disciplines like compliance, AI, edtech, clean beauty, femtech, and HR tech.

Following regional rounds in five program tracks, five founders made it to the regional finals, which were Anisha Oberoi (SECRET SKIN, UAE), Ayesha Mansha (Sahl, Saudi Arabia), Mahra AlQubaisi (Elevation, UAE), Nesma Amin (Aziza, Egypt), and Rahaf Aldruby and Seem Alkabbani (TarKeys, Rest of ME track). These finalists were matched with mentors to be ready for pitching, grow their businesses, and win the finals.

The program, launched by TiE Dubai in collaboration with GITEX Global and Expand North Star, will offer women founders access to one of the globe's biggest tech ecosystems.

The program is backed by e& life and ecosystem partners such as Dubai Internet City, in5, Playbook, C3, AngelSpark, Plug and Play, Wamda, Astrolabs, StartAD, and other funds, accelerators, and incubators.

TiE Women MENA 2025 co-chairs Carlina Marani and Raed Hafez pointed to the program's mission to empower women entrepreneurs to create, grow, and lead worldwide, in line with the UAE vision for sustainable, inclusive growth.

e& Group Chief Strategy Officer Harrison Lung stressed the need for mentorship, networks, and actual opportunities in the support of women-led start-ups. Ten mentors, a majority of whom are TiE Charter Members, continue to offer advice to the cohort after the finals.

Studies reveal that gender equality would contribute an additional USD 2 trillion to MENA's GDP, yet male-only startups continue to secure around five times more investment than women-only startups. Women own fewer than 5 percent of companies across the region, yet UAE women's private-sector engagement grew by 23.1 percent in 2024.

TiE Dubai continues to offer mentorship, access to funding, visibility, and networking programs to advance women entrepreneurs. Ayesha Mansha said the victory is not just for her firm but for the entire group of founders in the region, proving that local products of a world class can be developed. TiE Dubai, founded in 2003 and opened by His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum helps more than 3,000 entrepreneurs via networking, mentoring, funding, incubation, and education programs.