FEBRUARY 10, 2019 – DUBAI: Womena is gearing up for cycle two of womentum, our four-month, early-stage accelerator for female-led tech startups in the Middle East and North Africa.

Applications for the 2019 cycle open today and close on April 11. Apply here.

Womena is also excited to release season one of the Womentum Series this March. The 12-episode docu-series follows the journey of the startups and gives audiences a chance to experience the reality of what it’s like to build, pivot and grow businesses in these regional markets. Watch the Womentum Series trailer!

The womentum 2019 cycle will be documented in the second season.

“With an unprecedented 175 applications from women-led businesses in womentum’s first year, we’re looking to surpass all expectations in 2019 and once again prove that the region is poised to be a global hotbed for tech changemakers,” says Elissa Freiha, founder of womena.

Womentum is a unique experience-based accelerator program that follows a blended model designed to immerse early-stage startups in Berlin’s innovative ecosystem and then connects them to investors, mentors and regional markets in the Dubai hub.

After two weeks of in-person sessions in Berlin, startups go through a remote execution phase in their home countries, where they receive virtual mentorship as they work to validate their products in localized contexts. A two-week Dubai bootcamp preps startups to be investment-ready ahead of an exclusive Demo Day that brings together key players in the regional ecosystem.

Graduates of our first cohort gave womentum a Net Promoter Score of 97.5 percent. “Womentum took us from a struggling startup to this more polished, stronger, confident, investment-inclined business,” says Ingi Naguib, co-founder of Furnwish, one of the Egypt-based startups in the 2018 cycle.

Founders reported a more than 50 percent change in their business model as a result of the womentum program, a 79 percent improvement in financial model and a 58 percent increase in users and customers. Startups were able to increase their website traffic by 224 percent and grow their social media audience by 44 percent

“We were able to help companies transform their business models, build better products, create effective marketing and sales strategies, launch products and successfully close investment deals,” Christina Andreassen, womentum program’s managing director.

For the womentum 2019 cycle, womena has built an improved program supported by a wider network of partners and mentors, and enriched by the invaluable expertise of the first cohort’s alumni.

Womentum leverages womena’s media platform to highlight the founders, startups and the program curriculum. More than 230 pieces of creative content were produced during the first cycle, with a reach of more than 5 million through our social media platforms. As a result, founders in our first cohort reported a 75 percent increase in regional media exposure and 90 percent more confidence in dealing with media.

The Womentum Series documents the unique program and follows the journey of the founders to see how it has impacted their personal and professional lives. Our media team follows participating startups from Berlin to Dubai, with visits to home countries during the remote period, to see how they implement the advice and mentorship from the accelerator as well as how they deal with the personal and professional challenges.

“Womena has always done things our own unique way and this accelerator follows that legacy,” says Freiha. “In addition to a world-class curriculum, we envelop all content in perspective-shifting experiences: Taking the entrepreneurs out of their comfort zones and forcing them to look differently, innovatively, at their solutions.”

A vital component of the program’s content focuses on mental health, co-founder relationships and personal growth through dynamic EQ sessions, more of which will be part of this year’s cycle.

“We’re looking forward to seeing the new and diverse generation of female-led startups that we’ll be working with in 2019,” says Andreassen.

**Hi-res photos: LINK
**Womentum Series trailer: LINK
***Womentum 2019 Application video: LINK

About womena
womena® accelerates equality through creative content and entrepreneurial experiences. Founded in 2014, womena has built an award-winning angel investment group that facilitated over 3 million AED in funding into 10 companies.

Womena grew to become a multi-dimensional media company that produces content focused on female founders, creatives and changemakers. Our flagship accelerator program, womentum, is an experience-based early stage accelerator focused on female-led tech startups in the Middle East, and aims to increase the pipeline of women entrepreneurs in the regional ecosystem. The accelerator is documented through our media platform and produced into a 12-episode web series. Our Womena Bossladies network has the largest number of female entrepreneurs and investors in the Middle East.

All of these elements come together to make womena the leading ecosystem enabler for diversity and inclusion in MENA. The goal of womena is more women in business, more women investors, and a more inclusive, diverse, and consequently booming ecosystem.

For more information:
Amira Salah-Ahmed
Head of Strategy and Media Development
amira@womena.com

Christina Andreassen
Womentum Managing Director
christina@womena.com