Santiago / Lagos, June 2026 – Aurora Ventures, a new early‑stage investment program, has officially launched with support from inDrive, the global mobility and delivery platform that scaled to unicorn status across emerging markets. The initiative will prioritize Nigeria as one of its key pilot markets during its 2026 debut year.
The launch follows the conclusion of the Aurora Tech Award 2026 in Santiago, Chile, where Nigerian entrepreneur Adeola Ayoola‑Famasi was named among the top 10 finalists from a record‑breaking pool of 3,400 applicants.
Aurora Ventures is designed to leverage one of the world’s largest pipelines of underserved female talent, built on five years of proprietary data from the Aurora Tech Award. With applications growing nearly 30‑fold since 2021, the program aims to address persistent market inefficiencies where high‑growth, women‑led businesses in MENA, Africa, and Latin America remain undervalued by traditional venture capital.
Isabella Ghassemi‑Smith, Head of Aurora Ventures, described the program as a disciplined investment platform rooted in the conviction that women founders represent one of the most overlooked opportunities in venture capital today. “Over the past five years, we’ve seen a repeating pattern: exceptional women building rigorous businesses but reaching institutional capital later and on worse terms than their performance justifies,” she said.
By combining inDrive’s global reach with Aurora’s sourcing advantage, the program seeks to mobilize capital and accelerate innovation across emerging markets, positioning female founders as a driving force in the next wave of entrepreneurial growth.
