{"id":779728,"date":"2026-09-23T07:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/779728\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T07:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T07:16:09","slug":"uae-startup-ecosystem-matures-sheraa-pushes-founders-beyond-fast-fundraising-to-sustainable-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/779728\/","title":{"rendered":"UAE Startup Ecosystem Matures: Sheraa Pushes Founders Beyond Fast Fundraising to Sustainable Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cStartups used to be all about speed. Raise quicker, grow faster. That was the measure of success. Now it\u2019s deeper than that. We\u2019ve matured as an ecosystem,\u201d said Tayeb Hassan, Community Growth Manager at Sheraa and co-founder of Nafsi Health.<\/p>\n

Founders are now asking tougher questions about why customers return, how their economics work and what values sit behind their businesses, Hassan said, describing the shift as part of a wider maturation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sharjah and across the UAE.<\/p>\n

That change is also reshaping the type of support entrepreneurs need.<\/p>\n

Too much information, too little clarity<\/p>\n

Access to information is no longer the constraint it once was. AI tools have made it possible for entrepreneurs to learn new skills and find answers almost immediately, but Hassan said the volume of information available is creating another problem.<\/p>\n

Founders increasingly need help deciding what deserves their attention at a particular stage of the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the most important thing I can do for my startup right now? What is the most relevant, highest-leverage task I can do to set myself up for success?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sheraa\u2019s role, Hassan said, is increasingly centred on helping founders answer that question while connecting them with people and opportunities that can move their businesses forward.<\/p>\n

He described access as one of Sharjah\u2019s biggest advantages for entrepreneurs, given the proximity of universities, investors, corporates and other founders within the emirate.<\/p>\n

\u201cEntrepreneurship is usually an isolating journey. Founders get lonely,\u201d Hassan said. \u201cThe biggest thing that Sharjah offers founders is access.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connecting founders with investors and customers<\/p>\n

Sheraa runs initiatives aimed at entrepreneurs at different stages of their businesses.<\/p>\n

Its year-round membership programme provides investor and commercial introductions alongside networking and other forms of support tailored to where a founder is in their journey.<\/p>\n

The Access Sharjah Challenge connects startups with procurement opportunities at larger organisations, giving young businesses another route to potential customers and commercial contracts.<\/p>\n

Hassan described Sheraa as the \u201cglue\u201d connecting investors, universities, corporates and founders who may otherwise rarely find themselves in the same room.<\/p>\n

\u201cSheraa\u2019s role is to shorten that distance for founders, between founders and their next opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival takes that approach to a larger scale by bringing founders, investors, speakers and established entrepreneurs together.<\/p>\n

Sheraa\u2019s membership also spans people who are only beginning to explore entrepreneurship through to founders who have operated companies for years, giving participants an opportunity to learn from businesses at different stages.<\/p>\n

Support when businesses were hit by disruption<\/p>\n

The ecosystem was tested during recent regional disruption, when some businesses saw revenues disappear while others faced products stuck at ports, storage charges and wider supply chain problems.<\/p>\n

Hassan said many of the companies affected had otherwise been stable businesses that had done everything expected of them before conditions changed abruptly.<\/p>\n

Sheraa responded through its Entrepreneurship Resilience Fund, bringing together monetary grants, marketing support and exposure opportunities intended to help affected businesses regain stability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it was almost a duty for us to step up and provide them with the support they needed at that time, as quickly as we could,\u201d Hassan said.<\/p>\n

More than 22 partners became involved in the initiative.<\/p>\n

The disruption also showed the role local businesses could play when international connectivity and supply chains were affected, with UAE-based founders and manufacturers stepping in to address gaps.<\/p>\n

Where Sharjah sees growth<\/p>\n

Manufacturing is among the sectors where Hassan sees further opportunity in Sharjah, alongside healthcare, agriculture and sustainability.<\/p>\n

Technology and AI are also expected to play an increasingly important role across industries, with Hassan saying they should be embedded across sectors instead of treated purely as standalone areas.<\/p>\n

Local manufacturing became particularly important during regional disruption, when businesses in Sharjah helped fill supply chain gaps.<\/p>\n

Agriculture is another area Hassan highlighted, alongside sustainability, which he said has long been a focus for Sheraa.<\/p>\n

Sharjah wants to shorten the distance to opportunity<\/p>\n

Hassan said Sharjah\u2019s proposition for founders ultimately comes back to access and community.<\/p>\n

Entrepreneurs often make location decisions based on cost and other practical considerations, but he said the longer-term question is where a company can continue to build and scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity equals continuity, equals feedback, equals growth,\u201d Hassan said.<\/p>\n

\"Nivetha<\/a><\/p>\n

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, where she spends her days unpacking money, markets, aviation, and the big shifts shaping life in the Gulf. Before returning to Gulf News, she launched Finance Middle East, complete with a podcast and video series.<\/p>\n

Her reporting has taken her from breaking spot news to long-form features and high-profile interviews. Nivetha has interviewed Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu, IMF\u2019s Jihad Azour, and a long list of CEOs, regulators, and founders who are reshaping the region\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha has shared classrooms and newsrooms with journalists from more than 40 countries, which probably explains her weakness for data, context, and a good follow-up question.<\/p>\n

When she is away from her keyboard (AFK), you are most likely to find her at the gym with an Eminem playlist, bingeing One Piece, or exploring games on her PS5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cStartups used to be all about speed. Raise quicker, grow faster. That was the measure of success. Now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[84,4203,10039,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-779728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-business","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-uae","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}