Standard Chartered and Falak Holding Announce Winners of the Fourth Women in Tech Accelerator Cohort in Saudi Arabia

Standard Chartered and Falak Holding announced the winners of the fourth Women in Tech Saudi Arabia accelerator cohort at Demo Day in Riyadh, awarding three women-led start-ups equity-free grant funding totalling USD 45,000. The eight-week programme supported 10 companies chosen from 251 applications across the Kingdom and culminated in prize awards to GigSA, Lesser for Sustainability Solutions and Munji.

“The Women in Tech programme reflects our commitment to supporting Saudi Arabia’s innovation economy...”

“The Women in Tech programme reflects our commitment to supporting Saudi Arabia’s innovation economy by empowering women entrepreneurs with the tools, networks and capital they need to scale impactful businesses,” said Mazen Bunyan, Chief Executive Officer and Head of Coverage, Saudi Arabia, Standard Chartered. “The quality and diversity of this cohort demonstrate the depth of talent across the Kingdom and the important role women-led start-ups play in driving economic diversification, job creation and sustainable growth. By helping more women led businesses grow and access capital, the programme supports a broader, more dynamic private sector while contributing to the economic ambitions of Saudi Vision 2030.”

The three winners represent distinct technology verticals: GigSA is an AI-enabled event workforce management company; Lesser for Sustainability Solutions focuses on sustainability and circular economy technologies; and Munji develops cardiac health technology that combines wearable devices, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. Each start-up received part of the USD 45,000 equity-free funding awarded on Demo Day.

Adwa Al Dakhel, Founder and CEO of Falak Holding, framed the programme’s value in operational progress rather than headline events. “For us, the value of the programme is not measured by the number of sessions or by what happens on the Demo Day stage, but by the progress made within each company: the clarity of its model, the quality of its decisions and its ability to reach the market and access capital,” she said. “During this cohort, we saw founders move from thinking about the next step to building companies that are better prepared for it. This is the impact we seek at Falak: not only to open doors to opportunities, but to help build companies capable of capitalising on them and competing through them.”

Founders pitched to a judging committee that included Nada Aljeffri, Chief Risk Officer, Saudi Arabia, and Mahmoud Jawdat, Head of Saudi Corporates, both from Standard Chartered; Adwa Al Dakhel from Falak Holding; Bader Alsaif, Entrepreneurship Development Expert at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology; Fawaz Altamimi, Director of Social Entrepreneurship at Monsha’at; and Lujain Nassif, Programme Director at Flat6Labs. The judges evaluated ventures on market readiness, business model clarity and investment potential.

Standard Chartered launched the Women in Tech programme in Saudi Arabia in March 2022 as part of a global initiative. Since then the programme has supported 40 women founders and awarded USD 190,000 in equity-free funding to 12 start-ups. Falak Holding, founded by Adwa AlDakheel in 2018 and headquartered in Riyadh, says it has supported over 180 startups and more than 40,000 beneficiaries through growth services, venture funding, angel syndication and partnerships, with a portfolio market capitalisation exceeding SAR 1.3 billion.

Looking ahead, the programme’s organisers signalled continued support for women entrepreneurs in the Kingdom through training, mentoring and access to capital. The combination of corporate banking support from Standard Chartered and ecosystem services from Falak aims to increase the number of investable, women-led tech companies and strengthen their ability to scale regionally and internationally.