“Why is it women only get less than 3% of Venture Capital funds? There is not a pipeline problem. There is a perception problem,” says Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, head of the Aurora Tech Award. “It’s hard for women to get to the table and once they are there then it’s not so comfy.”

The Aurora Tech Award that brings together start-ups founded and run by women from all over the world.

The 2025 winners were announced at an event in Cairo this week. Established in 2021 by global mobility and urban services platform inDrive, the award seeks to help level the playing field for women tech entrepreneurs, offering cash prizes and access to additional resources to help them scale up their ventures. 

This year’s competitors were celebrated not only for their industry contributions, but also for the significant positive impact they have had on their communities. They were selected from a record number of 2,018 applicants from 116 countries.

The winner of the $30,000 prize money went to Solape Akinpelu, the CEO and founder of HerVest from Nigeria, an online platform that connects small farmers with bigger agricultural export and distribution companies.

The vast majority of Nigeria’s agricultural output is produced by small holders that do not have the size or volume to connect with the larger companies that deal in bulk sales and distribution. By signing up to the platform, women farmers can pool their resources and tap into the country wide agricultural business; typically they see their incomes rise by 65% Akinpelu said as well as getting feedback on what is in demand and what earns the best profits. It also helps them with access to savings, impact investing, and credit, particularly for the smallholder female farmers.

In second place was Loretxu Garcia Arraztoa the co-founder and CEO of Nido Contech from Chile that makes a seaweed-based construction material that is cheaper to use than concrete and has the added advantage of controlling temperatures in builds by cooling them when hot and warming them when cold, thanks to the micro-organism in the seaweed inside the panels.

“Most green construction materials are more expensive and more difficult to install than concrete, but Nido’s panels and cheaper and faster to install,” said Arraztoa on receiving the $15,000 prize.

Seaweed is also plentiful as thanks to global warming it is growing faster and actually causing a problem by clogging up ports and coastlines making sourcing the main input easy and cheap.

In third places was Shreya Prakash the co-founder of FlexiBees from India, that allows women returning to work after having children to leverage their experience and find part time jobs or project work that fits with the other demands on their time.

FlexiBees addresses a critical global challenge: low female workforce participation. The platform connects experienced women professionals with businesses through flexible, project-based, and remote work models, creating a win-win solution for both talent and employers.

Fourth Place went to Laura Velásquez Herrera, Arkangel AI from Colombia which uses artificial intelligence to tackle preventable diseases through early detection. Their AI SaaS platform transforms medical data into AI algorithms without requiring coding expertise.

And the fifth place prise wen to Leonie Korn, UpLeap from Switzerland, which is an AI-driven platform revolutionizing medical training through interactive, hands-on simulations.

Today InDrive is present in 48 emerging markets around the world and determined, as part of its “fair business,” model to give something back. “We have a goal of positively impacting the lives of a billion people by 2030,” Mark Loughran, president of inDrive, told bne IntelliNews on the sidelines of the event. “We offer a service that has fair prices for the customer and fair pay for the drivers. The idea of fairness is at the core of the business model, including bringing fair services to underserved communities and challenging injustice. As part of this wider mission, inDrive supports the Aurora Tech Awards to spotlight women tech founders and expand gender equality.”

The She Can/Aurora Awards are an attempt to give bright and dynamic woman-run tech start-ups a leg up in this competitive business.

“I wondered why it was so hard for women. So I rang round to many companies and leaders. What I heard was there is a lack of access for women: lack of access to manufacturers; lack of access to capital; and lack of access to creditability. We are trying to change that… I hope the award will bring prestige so when you go into that meeting it will be easier to raise money,” says Ghassemi-Smith.

inDrive has become a global mobility and urban services platform, operating in 888 cities across 48 countries, including Egypt. It has a unique peer-to-peer price bidding model and remains the world’s second-most downloaded ride-hailing app for the third consecutive year, the company said. Beyond ride-hailing, inDrive offers intercity transportation, delivery, and other urban services. One of the newest directions is providing financial services to drivers; hard-to-get credit and banking services to the drivers, who are mainly freelancing for gigging making it hard to credit score them. InDrive uses its information on the drivers’ work performance and pay records to reassure the banks.

The event was held in Cairo, one of the company’s biggest and fastest growing markets. After four years of operation, inDrive is now the number one ride-hailing app in Egypt, operating in 22 cities across the country. The company’s offering in Egypt includes ride-hailing, city-to-city transportation, courier delivery and freight. inDrive has been in Egypt since December 2020, with Cairo and Alexandria being its key cities of operation.