Female founders that got funded
Mona Ataya, Mumzworld: Mona is a visionary leader who has been voted as the SME Executive of the Year 2013, one of the 100 Most Powerful Arabs in 2018, while also winning the SME Leader of the Year Award 2018, as well as many others over the past few years. She is the founder of Mumzworld.com, the largest e-commerce portal in the Middle East dedicated to all things mother, baby, and child. Her company serves over 2 million mothers in the MENA region and ships to more than 20 countries. It has also won over 80 prestigious accolades in the past 7 years including The Small Business of The Year Award 2013.
Funding: In addition to all her above-listed credentials, Mona Ataya of Mumzworld has also managed to raise funding of US$ 20 million in 4 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on March 19, 2019 from a Secondary Market round.
Nadine Mezher, Sarwa: The co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Sarwa, Nadine brings 14 years of marketing and management experience to her role. She has been a driving force behind the success of the Sarwa, which is doing very well. One of the key aspects of Sarwa’s success and Nadine’s vision is to bring investment opportunities to those with limited income as well as women, who have traditionally not been involved in financial investments. They also hold classes to help women understand the world of investments better and recently launched their socially responsible investment portfolio.
Funding: To date, Sarwa.co has raised a total of US$9.9M in funding – their most recent round being in 2020.
Also read: Inspiring women entrepreneurs from around the world
Sarah Jones, Sprii: The sole founder of Sprii, Sarah has persevered to help the e-commerce platform to become the leading e-marketplace for mums across the Middle East. The platform now offers more than 300,000 exclusive products to cater to new and old mothers.
Funding: Recently, Sarah raised $8.5 million in Series A funding, coming in as one of the top 10 fundings in the first half of 2019. She has also managed to reduce customer acquisition costs by 20 times, while increasing reach and click-through rate by 10 times each.
Ghizlan Guenez, The Modist: With over 10 years experience in private equity with The Abraaj Group, Ghizlan is the first to tap into the potential $500 billion market of modest fashion that caters to women across religions and backgrounds who wish to dress in a more demure way. Her start-up, The Modist, now has offices in Dubai as well as London.
Funding: Modist recently raised undisclosed funds in its corporate round and is again doing very well as an online fashion marketplace.
