For the second year running, a Nigerian woman has taken home one of the tech world’s most coveted honors. Solape Akinpelu, founder of the fintech startup Hervest, was named the 2025 winner of the $30,000 Aurora Tech Award during a grand finale event held in Cairo from April 11 to 13.
Akinpelu’s triumph not only spotlights her work in financial inclusion but also marks a powerful back-to-back win for Nigeria, following Folake Owodunni’s victory in 2024. Hervest, Akinpelu’s brainchild, is a financial platform dedicated to improving access to savings, credit, and impact investing for underserved African women, particularly smallholder female farmers.
Global Recognition for Women-Led Startups
This year’s Aurora Tech Award drew an unprecedented 2,018 applications from 116 countries, doubling last year’s tally. Ten finalists emerged, each representing groundbreaking startups in sectors ranging from AI to health tech and fintech, across MENA, LATAM, Central Asia, and APAC.
Joining Akinpelu on the winners’ podium were:
First runner-up: Loretxu Garcia Arraztoa (Chile), founder of Nido Contech – $20,000
Second runner-up: Shreya Prakash (India), founder of FlexiBees – $15,000
Finalists: Laura Velásquez Herrera (Colombia), CEO of Arkangel AI, and Leonie Korn (Switzerland), founder of UpLeap – each awarded $10,000
All finalists gain access to influential investors, strategic partners, and inDrive’s global network, critical resources designed to accelerate startup growth and scale.
SHE CAN Conference Showcases Female Innovation
The final pitch session coincided with the SHE CAN conference hosted by Egypt’s Entreprenelle, a flagship event empowering women through education and entrepreneurship. The conference draws more than 7,000 attendees annually, making it one of MENA’s most influential platforms for women in business.
A Platform That Breaks Barriers, Not Just Awards
Speaking at the event, Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, Head of the Aurora Tech Awards, emphasized that the recognition isn’t about token representation. “These founders are here not because they’re women, but because they’re building companies that matter,” she said. “Aurora is here to ensure they get the capital, visibility, and connections to go even further.”
Echoing the sentiment, Evgenia Matrosova, Chief Growth Officer at inDrive, highlighted the platform’s broader mission: “Aurora is more than just an award, it’s a launchpad designed to break barriers and close the gender investment gap in emerging markets.”
The Aurora Tech Award is a global initiative by inDrive, the urban mobility platform with operations in over 888 cities across 48 countries. inDrive aims to impact one billion lives by 2030 through socially driven innovation and empowerment programs under its non-profit arm, inVision.
For more on the 2025 Aurora Tech Award winners, visit auroratechaward.com or follow the updates on LinkedIn.
