Solape Akinpelu, the founder of Nigerian fintech platform HerVest, has emerged as the first-place winner of the 2025 Aurora Tech Award, a global competition that celebrates and supports the most promising female tech entrepreneurs from emerging markets. The prestigious event, held in Cairo, Egypt from April 11–13, brought together top innovators from around the world who are using technology to solve real-world problems.
Akinpelu was awarded $30,000 in cash funding and access to a robust global support network of investors, mentors, and partners. Her platform, HerVest, stood out for its mission to bridge the gender financial inclusion gap by offering savings, credit, and impact investment opportunities to financially underserved African women — particularly smallholder female farmers who often lack access to formal banking and credit services.
Founded with a vision to empower African women through financial independence, HerVest has already reached thousands of users across Nigeria and is poised for rapid expansion. With the Aurora Tech Award, Akinpelu’s bold mission to transform the financial landscape for women has gained the global attention — and resources — it deserves.
The Aurora Tech Award, an initiative by inDrive, is more than a pitch competition. It is a launchpad for high-impact women-led ventures from the Global South, offering visibility, funding, and access to key global networks. The 2025 edition attracted 2,018 applications from 116 countries, doubling the submissions from the previous year. Just ten finalists — the top 0.5% — advanced to the grand finale in Cairo, hosted within the SHE CAN Conference, one of MENA’s largest events for female entrepreneurs.
At the event, each finalist presented their venture to a cross-functional panel of investors, operators, and public sector leaders. Solape’s victory is not only a win for HerVest, but for the broader African tech ecosystem, which is increasingly seeing women step into the spotlight as innovators and change-makers.
In addition to Akinpelu’s first-place win, the Aurora Tech Award recognized four other remarkable women founders:
- Second Place ($20,000): Loretxu Garcia Arraztoa, founder of Nido Contech (Chile), whose startup is developing nature-based construction materials that lower both environmental impact and costs. Her venture is revolutionizing the traditional construction industry by offering sustainable, scalable solutions.
- Third Place ($15,000): Shreya Prakash, founder of FlexiBees (India), was recognized for tackling low female workforce participation by connecting experienced women professionals with flexible, remote, and project-based work opportunities. FlexiBees is building a future where women can thrive in the workplace without compromising family responsibilities.
- Fourth Place ($10,000): Laura Velásquez Herrera, founder of Arkangel AI (Colombia), leverages artificial intelligence to fight preventable diseases through early detection tools. Her AI SaaS platform transforms medical data into diagnostic tools without requiring users to write code — a huge leap forward for scalable healthcare solutions.
- Fifth Place ($10,000): Leonie Korn, founder of UpLeap (Switzerland), developed an AI-driven medical training platform offering hands-on simulation experiences for healthcare professionals, helping them learn in realistic, interactive environments.
The award prizes, coupled with ongoing access to inDrive’s platform, resources, and global mentor network, position these founders to scale their businesses and drive real impact across their industries.
Speaking on the significance of the awards, Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, Head of the Aurora Tech Awards, said, “The Aurora Tech Award isn’t about representation for the sake of it — it’s about backing the highest-potential founders building real companies. These women didn’t wait for an invitation to the table — they built their own.”
Evgenia Matrosova, Chief Growth Officer at inDrive, added, “The Aurora Tech Award is not just an accolade — it’s a platform to attract investment, close the gender gap in venture capital, and power up the next generation of tech unicorns from emerging markets.”
With this win, Solape Akinpelu not only reinforces her place as one of Africa’s most promising tech entrepreneurs but also becomes a symbol of what’s possible when innovation, impact, and inclusion intersect. Her company, HerVest was one of the recipients of the 2022 Google for Startups Black Founders Fund in Africa. As HerVest scales and inspires, Akinpelu’s story will continue to pave the way for countless women across Africa who are ready to transform their communities — and the world.
