The Aurora Tech Award, powered by inDrive, has announced the 10 finalists selected to pitch in Santiago for funding and access to Aurora’s global VC network, designed to help women-led tech companies scale in emerging markets.

Adeola Ayoola, founder of Famasi, a healthtech platform, has been named among the top 10 finalists for the 2026 Aurora tech award, a global prize dedicated to supporting female tech founders in emerging markets.

Chosen from 3,400 applications from 127 countries, this was a record-breaking year for the Award, reflecting the rapid growth of female entrepreneurship across emerging economies.

The finalists span sectors including AI, fintech, healthtech, sustainability, agritech and more.

Women are building a growing share of the world’s venture-scale companies, but capital allocation has lagged behind.

In 2025, all-women founding teams accounted for 5.6 per cent of global VC deals but received just 1.4 per cent of total VC funding. This is despite delivering a disproportionate amount of value – all-women-founded companies represented 6.2 per cent of global VC exit value in 2025, and they can return 2x more revenue per dollar invested.

The Aurora Tech Award aims to close this gap between participation and capital allocation by providing its alumni with not only the funds to catalyse the growth of their companies, but access to the strategic support and connections that give them the visibility and leverage to help them scale.

The Aurora 2026 top 10 finalists:
Adeola Ayoola, Famasi (Nigeria) – A platform that helps pharmacies manage operations and see stock in real time across a network, so prescriptions can be routed to nearby pharmacies that have the medicine available. Seed-stage

Adriana Gonzalez, tizo (Panama) – An AI-enabled messaging platform that helps unbanked shoppers and small merchants in Latin America buy and sell online via local store networks. Seed-stage

Angela Acosta, Morado (Colombia) – A fintech improving economic opportunity for female beauty entrepreneurs by using AI models to provide fast, fair access to credit and working capital, in turn unlocking long-term business success. Seed-stage

Catalina Isaza, Innmetec (Colombia) – A medtech firm delivering personalised surgical implants and pre-surgery planning tools, using 3D printing and advanced biomaterials to support safer procedures, faster recovery and better patient outcomes. Seed-stage

Estefanía Abello, Muta (Colombia) – A sustainability platform bringing digitalisation and traceability to the recycling value chain – helping recyclers reduce operational inefficiencies and meet compliance requirements, and enabling processors and brands to verify the origins and sustainability metrics of their materials. Seed-stage

Maria Kawas, DomestikCo (Chile) – HR software that helps households formalise domestic work by automating employment contracts, payroll and employer compliance, improving access to protections for workers and providing peace of mind for household employers. Pre-seed

Mariana Zuliani, OncoAI (Brazil) – A healthtech firm providing AI-driven clinical insights to help oncologists and healthcare institutions predict cancer recurrence and optimise treatment decisions, supporting better outcomes while reducing unnecessary interventions. Pre-seed.

Mercedes Bidart, Quipu (Colombia) – A fintech company building an alternative credit scoring system to help informal workers get fairer access to capital when they lack traditional credit histories. Seed-stage
Patricia Florencia, Pilou (Mexico) – An AI-powered wealthtech business helping Latin Americans, especially women, build wealth and make informed decisions by simplifying how they manage investment accounts. Pre-seed
Penny Musengi, Pesira Technologies (Kenya) – An agritech platform bridging Africa’s agricultural digital divide by connecting farmers, agribusinesses and finance providers in one place – enabling access to financial services and marketplaces that support farm growth and more resilient supply chains Seed-stage.