The Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC) and Creative Zone organised on Tuesday a virtual session under the theme "Ways to secure funding for startups". The event comes as part of the "She Leads" business accelerator program, the first of its kind to be launched in Dubai and one of the Council’s and Creative Zone’s initiatives to train, support, and nurture female entrepreneurs and empower them to launch their business successfully.
The session, which was moderated by Lorenzo Jooris, CEO of Creative Zone, and presented by Padmini Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, Rise &Xare, was attended by 100 entrepreneurs who had signed up for the accelerator programme. The objectives touched on project funding and timing phases, identification of the appropriate financial institutions, the proper methods to get the startup funded, and what to do if your funding request declined.
"We are so overwhelmed with the response She Leads is getting. Seeing the attendees come together after the webinars is extremely heartening because this was precisely the spirit we wanted to accomplish throughout the 12-week program. We aim to bring women entrepreneurs together so they can continue to empower their counterparts to prosper and succeed in their professional lives," said Nadine Halabi, Business Development Manager, DBWC.
‘She Leads’ Accelerator targets women in building successful businesses by assisting them in developing critical capacities, the absence of which can obstruct their progress; for example, many female business owners don’t get adequate access to capital, networking, and technical assistance, their legal rights, and getting customers," she added.
"Business incubators and accelerators play an important role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem by offering training and services, and connecting business owners to opportunities and resources, helping them overcome various challenges that limit business development and growth, such as not having access to investors, and no financial, technical and mentoring support ", said Lorenzo Jooris, CEO of Creative Zone.
The session also reviewed methods of obtaining financial support by presenting accurate financial statements and feasibility studies, maintaining a good credit score, and providing the required financial guarantees. At the same time, the recommendations included the importance of picking the right projects and sectors, establishing a reliable team, presenting a well-rounded and realistic business plan, and building and maintaining good working relationships with project owners, investors, and financial institutions.