Female founder accelerator launched at Dubai AI Campus

Veenoo Sharma, founder and president of The Power Diaspora Forum (TPDF), has launched a female-founder accelerator at Dubai AI Campus, offering 30 fully funded places on a six-day programme that begins on 16 November.

SHE Leads with AI is the campus’s first female-founder accelerator and will be delivered at the Dubai International Financial Centre’s (DIFC) Innovation Hub.

Applications are open internationally, and Sharma is particularly encouraging UK female founders to apply.

Sharma, who is from Edinburgh and was recently named Diaspora Entrepreneurship Advisor to the Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network, said: “I wanted to create a programme aimed at exceptional female entrepreneurs building businesses with real international potential. SHE Leads with AI also creates a direct pathway from the UK into Dubai’s AI, investment and business ecosystem, and gives founders the opportunity to build relationships and explore markets that might otherwise feel difficult to access.”

Over the six days, founders will develop their understanding of AI and its application within their businesses. They will also receive investor-readiness support and build relationships across the DIFC ecosystem.

Participants will engage with investors, venture capitalists, family offices, mentors and partners. The programme will end with a live investor showcase.

The programme forms part of TPDF’s wider international work connecting women across business, politics, investment and diplomacy.

The launch follows TPDF’s recent Women in Power roundtable at the United Nations in Geneva, where senior figures from politics, business, diplomacy and public life came together to examine barriers affecting women’s progress in enterprise and leadership and to discuss practical solutions.

Sharma said: “Our conversations in Geneva reinforced something very important: discussing the barriers facing women is not enough. We also have to build the pathways that help women overcome them. SHE Leads with AI is about turning dialogue into delivery.”

Figures published on 8 July in the government’s sixth annual progress report on the Investing in Women Code showed all-female founder teams received 2 per cent of total investment value across the wider market.

Among code signatories, the share was 6 per cent, up from 4 per cent in 2023, according to the British Business Bank. The bank said 32 per cent of venture capital investment from signatories went to teams with at least one female founder in 2025, up from 27 per cent in 2024, against 15 per cent of total equity investment across the wider market.

The Department for Business and Trade said more than 330 organisations had signed up to the code, up from 12 in 2019, and that the Invest in Women Taskforce had deployed more than £70m from its £635m funding pool in its first year. Signatories have outperformed the wider market in supporting female founders for six years in a row, according to the department.

In May, the British Business Bank committed an initial £1m to co-invest with Angel Academe in female-led businesses across the UK.

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.