For many start-ups, moving from proving a business idea to preparing it for investment is one of the hardest stages of growth. The 2026 Women in Tech Accelerator in Egypt is designed to help women founders make that transition with structured training, mentorship and access to business networks.
The second edition of the programme, launched by the Standard Chartered Foundation in partnership with Entlaq and Village Capital, will support 12 women-led technology start-ups that have already demonstrated market validation and are ready to scale. The initiative will provide investment-readiness training, business development support and tailored mentorship, with three winners set to receive equity-free grants worth a combined US$35,000 at the end of the programme.
The focus on investment readiness is particularly important for women founders operating in a market where access to capital and specialised business networks remains a challenge. By combining funding opportunities with practical business support, the programme aims to help participating founders build stronger companies and prepare them for their next stage of growth.
Building on the Results of the First Cohort
The Egypt programme will be delivered by Entlaq, which brings experience in entrepreneurship support and ecosystem building. Its second edition follows the first cohort, which attracted 240 applications and supported 11 start-ups through more than 35 training sessions and over 40 mentorship sessions and roundtables.
Mohamed Gad, Chief Executive Officer and Head of Coverage at Standard Chartered Egypt, said women-led technology businesses are playing an increasingly important role in Egypt’s innovation economy. He said the programme is intended to give founders the skills, networks and support needed to strengthen their businesses and create opportunities for further growth.
The results from the first cohort also point to the wider economic potential of supporting women entrepreneurs. Yazmin Jumaali, Senior Programme Manager at Village Capital, said the 2025 cohort reached nearly 16,000 new customers, created more than 430 jobs and generated an additional US$2.7 million in revenue.
Those figures provide an important measure of what targeted support can achieve when founders are given access to the right resources at the right stage of their businesses.
Aya Ismail, Co-Founder and Programmes Director at Entlaq, said the programme combines capacity building, mentorship, investment readiness and access to business and investment networks. She described the accelerator as a practical response to the challenges identified through Entlaq’s Women in Entrepreneurship Report 2025.
Addressing the Funding Gap
The report, described by Entlaq as the first data-driven assessment of women entrepreneurship in Egypt, found that women-led start-ups continue to receive only a small share of available venture funding. It also identified an estimated US$2.2 billion funding gap, alongside limited access to specialised mentoring and professional networks.
The accelerator is therefore designed to turn those findings into practical support for founders. Rather than focusing only on entrepreneurship training, the programme aims to help women build businesses that are more competitive, investment ready and capable of scaling.
The initiative forms part of the wider Standard Chartered Women in Tech Accelerator, which has supported more than 4,000 women across 17 markets since its inception. In 2026, the global programme has allocated more than US$600,000 in grant funding to entrepreneurs across 12 markets.
In Egypt, the three winners will compete for US$35,000 in equity-free cash prizes at Demo Day, giving the selected businesses an opportunity to secure additional funding without giving up ownership of their companies.
Women start-up founders based in Egypt are invited to apply for the programme, which will run from September to December 2026. Full eligibility requirements and application details are available through Standard Chartered Egypt’s Women in Tech programme.
