00:01Among the record number of more than 1,600 startups at WebSummit Qatar this year, 38% of them are
00:08women-founded, a 7% jump from 2024.
00:11It's a testament to the summit's commitment to its Women in Tech program, first launched in 2015 to bridge the
00:18gender gap in tech and entrepreneurship.
00:20Since then, we've seen an increased demand to be at our event because one, we're offering discounts and easy access
00:28for women at our events, but we're also offering mentorship and guiding them, connecting those female founders with the female
00:35funders, making sure that experiences are created at WebSummit and continue afterwards.
00:40Over the years, one of the most outstanding stats came from Lisbon in 2021, when the number of female attendees
00:47exceeded that of their male counterparts for the first time.
00:51If we're looking at Qatar specifically, we've seen an increase in terms of female founders coming to the country from
00:5831% in 2024 to 38% this year, which means it's becoming easily accessible for female founders to connect
01:07and to further represent the industries and businesses they are creating.
01:12Beyond providing a platform for women founders to build connections and form partnerships, WebSummit Qatar also features speakers who not
01:20only advocate for gender parity, but who also put empowering women at the core of what they do, be it
01:26AI readiness in the workplace or providing tools for innovation.
01:30Real workforce readiness is not just about access to tools. It really means having AI fluency and understanding how AI
01:38impacts your role in your company.
01:41So what we're doing at IBM is providing free access to training through our IBM Skillsville program, and we partner
01:48with nonprofit organizations to really take advantage of the learning pathways that we have around AI, which lead to actual
01:55credentials that people can use to actually obtain a good-paying job.
01:59IBM is taking its efforts to the Middle East, signing a partnership with Qatar's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology
02:07at the Web Summit to open a global request for proposals for its Impact Accelerator program.
02:14Qatar has also caught the eye of founders who are keen to make an impact.
02:18We learned that a lot of people were still graduating with a college degree, but without experience enough to land
02:24a corporate job.
02:26We knew we had to launch Lumo Hubs. You are still at the university, but what you're doing is you're
02:31creating portfolios.
02:32You're doing real-life work scenarios. You're not walking into any job without having some basis of experience.
02:39Among many of the success stories this year is ScreenMe, a health tech startup that has made it to the
02:45top 10 list of women-founded startups at Web Summit Qatar.
02:49Like many women, I struggled with my health. I struggled a lot. I had disabling symptoms and pain, which were
02:58dismissed continuously by the healthcare providers.
03:01We deserve better. How can we improve screening? How can we improve diagnostics? How can we improve therapeutics? And so
03:07ScreenMe was born out of that personal story.
03:10Despite the milestones of the Women in Tech initiative, Web Summit believes a lot more needs to be done.
03:16We still see there's a gap in terms of the funds that are being allocated to startups. We've seen this
03:22in 2024, the survey and the report by PitchBook.
03:26Only around 22.7% of the funds that were allocated had a female founder.
03:33That's a sentiment echoed by participants too.
03:36I think platforms like the Web Summit gives them a platform where women like me, we can come out and
03:43we say,
03:43hey, I have something really interesting to say and I want you to listen.
03:47For Web Summit, the plan is not only to listen, but to amplify the voices of women like Dr Gulnush
03:54and make sure they're heard across the world.
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