The Aurora Tech Award, powered by inDrive, has unveiled the 10 finalists selected to compete in Santiago for non-dilutive funding and entry into its global venture capital network. The announcement follows a record-breaking application cycle that drew 3,400 submissions from 127 countries, underscoring the accelerating momentum of women-led entrepreneurship across emerging markets. The finalists, spanning sectors from artificial intelligence to fintech and healthtech, will pitch for funding and strategic backing aimed at helping them scale internationally.
Record Demand Reflects Rising Female Entrepreneurship
This year marked the largest and most competitive cohort in the award’s history, reflecting both heightened visibility and growing ambition among women founders in developing economies. The selected startups are all at pre-seed or seed stage and were chosen through a multilayered evaluation process involving more than 40 venture capital firms. Participating investors include DPI Venture Capital, Ventures Platform, Janngo Capital, Sarmayacar Ventures, SuperSeed, Imagine Ventures and Plus VC, each contributing sector-specific expertise and regional insight.
Despite the increasing number of women launching venture-scale companies, access to capital remains uneven. In 2025, all-women founding teams accounted for 5.6 percent of global venture capital deals but secured only 1.4 percent of total funding, even though they generated 6.2 percent of global VC exit value. Research also shows that women-founded companies can deliver twice as much revenue per dollar invested, highlighting the disconnect between performance and capital allocation.
Closing the Capital Gap
Aurora’s mission is to narrow that gap by combining financial support with strategic exposure. The top three winners will receive non-dilutive capital, while all finalists gain curated introductions to Aurora’s investor network, structured feedback sessions and access to a global peer community of female founders. The program culminates in a final pitch event in Santiago, where the 2026 winners will be announced before investors and an expert jury.
Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, Head of the Aurora Tech Award, said the selection process is designed to ensure finalists are both investor-validated and ready for scale. She noted that the rigorous screening framework blends independent VC assessments with operational benchmarks developed alongside experienced founders and investors. According to her, the resulting top 10 represent high-growth businesses poised to reshape industries across emerging markets.
Proven Impact from Previous Cohorts
Alumni results illustrate the award’s potential impact. Solape Akinpelu, co-founder of HerVest, secured first place in 2025 and has since reported a 270 percent increase in loan disbursements, reaching $284 million, alongside 36 percent year-on-year revenue growth. HerVest has directly served more than 150,000 women across Africa through savings, lending and financial education products.
Leonie Korn, co-founder of UpLeap, placed fifth in the previous cohort and subsequently closed a $330,000 pre-seed round with strategic investors introduced through Aurora’s VC network. UpLeap’s AI-powered medical training platform now serves more than 1,600 healthcare professionals, delivering over 6,000 training sessions and building a waitlist of more than 50 healthcare facilities across Africa and the DACH region. These outcomes reinforce the award’s role in accelerating traction beyond the pitch stage.
A Diverse 2026 Finalist Cohort
The 2026 finalists reflect strong representation from Latin America, with eight of the 10 companies headquartered in the region. Selected ventures include Famasi in Nigeria, which digitizes pharmacy inventory networks; tizo in Panama, an AI-enabled commerce platform for unbanked communities; and Morado in Colombia, a fintech expanding credit access for female beauty entrepreneurs. Other finalists include Chile’s DomestikCo, which formalizes domestic employment through HR automation, and Brazil’s OncoAI, delivering AI-driven oncology insights to improve treatment outcomes.
The cohort also features Quipu, Pilou and Muta, alongside Kenya’s Pesira Technologies, which connects farmers, agribusinesses and finance providers to strengthen agricultural supply chains. Javier Cueto, Managing Partner at Imagine Ventures, said the quality and commercial viability of this year’s applicants demonstrate that impact and financial returns are not mutually exclusive. He emphasized that the selected founders are building scalable solutions to pressing local challenges across diverse industries.
Founded in 2021, the Aurora Tech Award supports women-led tech startups operating for five years or less and with under $6 million in funding. By pairing non-dilutive capital with structured investor access and community support, the initiative aims to unlock the untapped potential of women founders in emerging economies. As the finalists prepare to pitch in Santiago, the program signals growing recognition that inclusive investment strategies can deliver both measurable impact and competitive returns.