For the second consecutive year, a Nigerian female tech entrepreneur has clinched the prestigious Aurora Tech Award.
Solape Akinpelu, founder of Hervest, was announced as the 2025 winner of the $30,000 prize at the grand finale held in Cairo from April 11–13. She follows in the footsteps of fellow Nigerian, Folake Owodunni, who won the award in 2024—marking a powerful moment for Nigerian women driving innovation in the global tech space.
Hervest by Solape Akinpelu is a fintech platform providing financially underserved African women access to savings, impact investing, and credit, particularly for smallholder female farmers.
Other top four outstanding female tech founders recognised at the event include the first runner-up, founder of Nido Contech Loretxu Garcia Arraztoa from Chile; the second runner-up and founder of FlexiBees Shreya Prakash from India; the Chief Executive Officer, Arkangel AI Laura Velásquez Herrera from Colombia; and the founder of UpLeap Leonie Korn from Switzerland.
The 2025 Aurora Tech Award winner will receive a cash prize of $30,000, while the second and third places get $20,000 and $15,000, respectively.
The fourth and fifth places are entitled to $10,000, respectively. Each finalist will gain exclusive access to the right investors, industry leaders, and strategic partners who can move the needle on their business.
The winners will also tap into inDrive’s expertise, team, and global network, giving them the support and resources to accelerate their growth, secure funding, and scale globally. The flagship event brought together the top 10 finalists from around the world — women building market-defining ventures — to compete for the main award prizes.
This year’s shortlist featured groundbreaking innovators from MENA, LATAM, Central Asia, and APAC, whose startups span diverse industries, including artificial intelligence, fintech, and health tech.
The 2025 edition of the award saw an unprecedented 2,018 applications from 116 countries, doubling the number of submissions from the previous year.
The final stage of the competition occurred during the regional SHE CAN conference hosted by Entreprenelle, a leading Egyptian organisation dedicated to empowering women through education, training, and entrepreneurial support.
Since its inception in 2015, SHE CAN has become one of the MENA region’s most influential industry events, attracting over 7,000 attendees annually.
Speaking on the award, Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, head of the Aurora Tech Awards, said the platform was created to help support innovators to take their ideas further.
“The Aurora Tech Award isn’t about representation for the sake of it — it’s about backing the highest-potential founders building real companies. These women aren’t here because of their gender. They’re here because they’re building businesses investors should care about. If the table wasn’t built for them, they didn’t wait for an invitation — they built their own. Aurora exists to ensure they get the capital, platform, and network to take it further,” Ghassemi-Smith said.
Also speaking on the award, Evgenia Matrosova, Chief Growth Officer and Head of Ride-Hailing at inDrive, said the decision to support these innovators was to help break the gender barrier in investment.
“Supporting female entrepreneurs in overcoming barriers and building strong networks is essential. Through the Aurora platform, we aim to attract future investment, boost visibility, and foster strategic partnerships. Our mission is to drive systemic change in emerging markets like MENA, closing the gender investment gap. The Aurora Tech Award is not just an accolade, it’s a launchpad for the next generation of unicorn founders,” he said
