Aurora Award: Nigerian women in tech take centre stage

Two Nigerian entrepreneurs have been shortlisted among the top 10 finalists for the 2025 Aurora Tech Award.

Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, Head of Start-up, Aurora Tech Awards, made this known in a statement on Wednesday.

Supreme news reports that Aurora Tech Award is a non-profit initiative of inDrive, a global mobility and urban services platform.

It is an award for tech start-ups founded by women whose projects have profoundly impacted international development.

Ghassemi-Smith said that the two trailblazing Nigerian entrepreneurs – the Founder of Farmatrix, Manzo Nyifamu, and the Founder of HerVest, Solape Akinpelu – run start-ups that are making impact through technology.

According to her, Aurora is not just a tech award, but a launchpad for the next generation of unicorn founders in emerging markets.

“With funding, high-profile investor access and a global network, we back the boldest women in tech who are building ventures that will redefine industries,” Ghassemi-Smith said.

She noted that the finalists were selected based on their start-ups’ innovation, scalability and social impact.

Ghassemi-Smith also said that the Aurora Tech Award was an annual global prize established in 2020 by inDrive to support and recognise women founders of early-stage technology start-ups.

“We consider female entrepreneurs who drive innovation and create meaningful social impact through technology as our award champions,” Ghassemi-Smith said.

She added that the Aurora Tech Award recognised the most promising female founders in emerging markets and celebrated visionary women entrepreneurs redefining the technology landscape.

Ghassemi-Smith highlighted that this year’s shortlist featured trailblazing founders from MENA, LATAM, Central Asia, and APAC, each leading start-ups offering solutions across industries ranging from Artificial Intelligence, Fintech to health tech and beyond.

According to her, half of the start-ups are at the seed stage, three projects are at the pre-seed level, and the rest are at the angel investment stages.

She noted that three of the start-ups focused on health tech, agritech and ecotech, while two are on edtech, one on fintech and the last one on HR-tech.

One of the shortlisted candidate, Manzo Nyifamu, said that doing business in Nigeria was not for the weak, and being a woman in agritech demanded more resilience.

She noted that Farmatrix, an Agro-Allied Technology Company, was transforming agriculture in Nigeria by leveraging technology to improve market access and sustainability for smallholder farmers.

Nyifamu, who is a certified Food System Specialist and Climate Reality Leader, said she founded Farmatrix after witnessing firsthand the challenges farmers faced from post-harvest losses to limited market access.

She noted that her company had impacted over 3,000 farmers, reducing post-harvest losses and increasing profitability.

Also, Solape Akinpelu, who was also shortlisted, said HerVest provided targeted savings, impact investments and credit financing to smallholder women farmers and women-led SMEs, addressing the 42 billion dollar gender finance gap in Africa.

She highlighted that HerVest fostered a more inclusive financial ecosystem where women could thrive, invest and contribute to sustainable economic growth.

Akinpelu said that the finalists would pitch their start-ups at the SHE CAN 2025 event, organised by Entreprenelle.