450 Startups, $290M Raised: Najla Al Midfa on Building a Generation of Founders | She Leads

She turned Sharjah into a global hub for entrepreneurship, ignited more than 450 startups, and helped unlock nearly $300 million in investment. Now, with the $273M Emirates Growth Fund, HE Najla Al Midfa is scaling UAE-born companies to the world stage.

In this episode of She Leads, Najla reveals:

• The bold choices that defined her journey, from being one of the first Emirati women to study abroad to pioneering the UAE’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• How she transformed Sharjah into a magnet for talent and ideas through the Sahrjah Entrepreneurship Centre (Sheraa) and the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival.
• The vision behind the Emirates Growth Fund and how it seeks to propel home-grown businesses to scale.
• The criteria that determines whether a founder thrives or fails
• Her unshakable belief in intuition, purpose, and building bridges between what is and what can be.

This is a rare, deeply personal look into the mindset of one of the region’s most influential changemakers, a conversation that redefines ambition, success, and leadership for a new generation.