Organised by inDrive, the award offers a total prize pool of $85,000 and global exposure to innovative female entrepreneurs driving social impact.

The 2026 edition will run from August 12 to November 12, 2025, inviting women founders from across the world to showcase tech solutions that combine innovation with measurable change.

Since its inception in 2021, the Aurora Tech Award has become a drive for elevating underrepresented voices in technology. In 2025 alone, it received a record-breaking 2,018 applications from 116 countries, twice the number from the previous year, with African innovators winning the top prize for three consecutive years. 

Nigeria’s Solape Akinpelu claimed the 2025 first prize, while finalists came from diverse fields including health tech, fintech, AI, edtech, and agrotech.

Head of the Aurora Tech Award, Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, spoke on its purpose, “The Aurora Tech Award is more than a prize – it’s a springboard for the next generation of bold women founders from emerging markets. We provide not just funding, but access to top investors, global networks, and the tools to help scale ventures that will shape the future of entire industries.”

Benefits

Female tech founders stand a chance to receive the following prices:

• Grand Prize: $50,000 for the winner.
• First Runner-Up: $20,000.
• Second Runner-Up: $15,000.
• Access to inDrive’s global expertise, curated mentorship programmes, and strategic networking opportunities.
• Direct exposure to investors and industry partners.
• Increased visibility and credibility on the global stage.
• Support in scaling, fundraising, and market expansion.

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the following criteria:

1. The startup must be owned or co-owned by a woman.
2. Must be less than 5 years old.
3. Have a working prototype and be at the pre-seed stage.
4. Total funding raised must not exceed $6 million.

How to Apply

Eligible candidates can apply online via the website before the deadline on Wednesday, November 12, 2025.

Competition Timeline

• 8 December 2025: Announcement of the Top 100 quarter-finalists.
• Following weeks: Selection of the Top 30 semi-finalists.
• Early 2026: Announcement of the Top 3 finalists.
• February–March 2026: Tailored mentorship programme for finalists.
• March–April 2026: Aurora Tech Award ceremony.

Entries will be assessed by a panel of investors and industry experts, focusing on innovation, scalability, and social impact.

2025 winner Solape Akinpelu said, “Winning the Aurora Tech Award proved that African women founders can thrive on the global stage. The funding, mentorship, and exposure transformed my organisation’s growth. I urge South African women innovators to apply, your ideas deserve to be seen and celebrated.”

From Chile, finalist Loretxu Garcia noted that, “What inspired me was knowing there’s an award that recognises not just technology, but the courage to innovate from our own lived realities. Applying to Aurora was my way of saying: women are also shaping the future through science.”

Third-place winner Shreya Prakash of FlexiBees, India, added, “Very few women-centric programmes provide actual funding. As a woman founder, it was heartening to see that the Aurora Tech Award backed its belief in women entrepreneurs with the catalyst of capital.”

The award is a non-profit initiative of inDrive, a global mobility and urban services platform operating in 982 cities across 48 countries. Known for its peer-to-peer ride-hailing price negotiation model, inDrive is the world’s second-most downloaded ride-hailing app.

Through the Aurora Tech Award, inDrive aims to address the fact that less than 2% of global VC funding goes to women-led startups, shifting resources and recognition to founders building their own platforms rather than waiting for a seat at the table.

For more information, visit the website.

This was made known at the 2024 International Women’s Day celebration organized by ImpactHER, a foremost non-profit organization with a mandate for empowering African female entrepreneurs by bridging the gender business financing gap so as to help them realize their full economic potentials in partnership with the African Union, ToolUp, BRAVE Women, GIZ and Lotus Bank.

The training had in attendance over 400 female entrepreneurs.

In her remarks, Efe Ukala, founder, ImpactHER, urged the women to forge a strong bond of unity, pull resources together and serve as a torch bearer in their various business enterprises. She explained that ImpactHER is an inclusion platform that seeks to help female entrepreneurs become the best version of themselves.

She said:

“Inspiring inclusion is more than just a theme for International Women’s Day. It is a guiding light for us all, especially the vibrant community of African women entrepreneurs. It means creating spaces where every woman’s voice can echo with strength, where her ideas can flourish without boundaries and where her dreams are nurtured by the collective support of a community that sees no limit to what she can achieve. It means each of us committing to lift as we climb ensuring that our success is not a solitary journey but a shared voyage that paves the way for more women to step into their power”.

“For this training, we had a slot for 250 women, but today, we have over 400 women in attendance. These women came from all parts of Lagos, Ibadan, Ogun State and even Benin Republic to learn. This shows that women across Nigeria and even Africa, truly need platforms like this where they can learn, network and receive guidance for sustainable business progression.

“Generally, ImpactHER helps even the most marginalized women to get free resources that allows them to build a more structured and sustainable business. For example, we provide free business registration service, book keeping and accounting so that they can access the finance needed to build their businesses.

“All these, we believe will help foster inclusion to help bridge the gender gap. During the event, we organized a market place with over forty vendors to showcase and sell their items. We appreciate all our sponsors for making this event very successful”.

While delivering her training on the topic- Inspire Inclusion- Unlocking opportunities in exports and empowering African women to conquer the global market, Florence Okafor, Chief Trade Promotion Officer, Nigerian Export Promotion Council urged the women to invest in quality packaging, acquisition of international licences, have an excellent knowledge of the laws guiding imports in various countries and international trade terms.

Another facilitator, Olanrewaju Oniyitan, founder/CEO, W-Holistic Business Solutions who spoke on the topic Growing Wealth: Growing an investable company as a woman founder hinted that people, a wonderful business model, track record of business growth, financial viability, scalability and risk management are some of the pointers needed for female entrepreneurs to become successful in their business.

She said:

“I urge you women to have a rich portfolio of your work and be deliberate about ensuring that you seek the right information always. Regulatory compliance is also very important in accessing finance. You need to be conversant with the tax laws, PAYEE and many more. On a final note, I want you all to know that innovation doesn’t mean you have to go digital or online. Innovation means, you can look at your process, refine it, add something to your product to make it unique and different and you have already innovated. You do not need an app to innovate. Continuous research and development can set your business on the path of innovation”.

In a special message from the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, who was represented by Brittany Orange, to the women, she lamented the low representation of women in the country’s political and economic space and urged the government to provide a level playing field for more women to be active in politics and business.