Sheraa Picks 14 Women Founders for SWIF Leadership Program

Sheraa has selected 14 women founders for its SWIF leadership program, Sharjah24 reported.

The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center, known as Sheraa, chose the founders for the latest edition of SWIF, a leadership program built around women entrepreneurs. Sharjah24 disclosed the cohort size — 14 founders — as the central fact of the announcement.

What does the selection mean for the founders?

The 14 women founders gain entry to a structured leadership track run by Sheraa, the government-backed entrepreneurship agency headquartered in Sharjah. Sheraa operates as one of the emirate's principal vehicles for startup support, and SWIF sits within that mandate as a program dedicated to women leading their own companies.

Selection itself is the gate. Being picked for the cohort places the founders inside Sheraa's programming rather than on its periphery, a distinction that matters in an ecosystem where agency backing often signals credibility to investors and partners.

Why does a women-focused cohort matter now?

Sharjah24 framed the announcement around the composition of the group: 14 founders, all women, all selected for a leadership curriculum. Programs that deliberately narrow their intake to women founders represent a targeted approach to building entrepreneurial pipelines, rather than relying on general accelerators where women remain a minority of applicants and selected companies.

Sheraa's decision to run SWIF as a named, dedicated program indicates the agency treats women-led ventures as a distinct segment of the Sharjah startup ecosystem — one warranting its own leadership track rather than inclusion only in broader cohorts.

Who is behind the program?

Sheraa — the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center — is the organizing institution. The agency has built its reputation on developing founders in the emirate, and SWIF extends that work into a leadership format designed specifically for women running companies.

The program's full name and curriculum details were not specified in the Sharjah24 report, which concentrated on the selection outcome: 14 women founders chosen.

What happens next?

The selected founders now move into the program itself. For Sheraa, the cohort represents the current output of its women-focused entrepreneurship pipeline in Sharjah, and the agency's next visible milestone will be what these 14 founders deliver — in company growth and in follow-on fundraising — as they complete the leadership track.

{
  "title": "Sheraa Picks 14 Women Founders for SWIF Leadership Program",
  "tags": ["Sheraa", "SWIF", "women founders", "Sharjah", "entrepreneurship"]
}