Females are the future of unicorn startups

Females are the future of unicorn startups

- The UAE aims to solidify its position as the go-to destination for international investment in the Middle East

- The females are the future of unicorn startups, but there’s a long road ahead

- Things are changing gradually as the women-led start-ups are an extremely niche area

Dubai: Though female entrepreneurs still face multiple barriers in accessing finance, however, the number of disrupting, lucrative women-run unicorns is growing exponentially. Unicorn, to state the overstated, is the title given to start-ups valued at over $1 billion dollars.

The proportion of new unicorns with atleast one woman founder in 2021 was at par with the year 2019 - the highest since 2015. As many as 83 of the 595 unicorns in 2021 were founded or co-founded by women, more than quadrupling that category’s count from 2020, according to the GCC Women Entrepreneurship Report, exclusively launched by Dash Venture Labs.

Of 83 new unicorns in 2021, as many as 16 are led by women. As of late, women co-founded unicorns also went public in 2021 when several companies were not valued in a private financing as a unicorn, but were valued in their public-market debuts above $1billion.

New Unicorns with a women CEO

The next generation of unicorn startups