A Nigerian female tech entrepreneur has won the coveted Aurora IT Award for the second year in a row.
Solape Akinpelu, the founder of Hervest, was declared the 2025 winner of the $30,000 award at the grand finale, which took place in Cairo on April 11- 13.
At the big finale, which took place in Cairo from April 11–13,
Following in the footsteps of fellow Nigerian Folake Owodunni, who took home the prize in 2024, Solape represents a significant milestone for Nigerian women spearheading innovation in the international IT sector.
Hervest is a fintech platform providing financially underserved African women access to savings, impact investing, and credit, particularly for smallholder female farmers.
Other top four outstanding female tech founders recognised at the event include the first runner-up, founder of Nido Contech Loretxu Garcia Arraztoa from Chile; the second runner-up and founder of FlexiBees Shreya Prakash from India; the Chief Executive Officer, Arkangel AI Laura Velásquez Herrera from Colombia; and the founder of UpLeap Leonie Korn from Switzerland.
A monetary award of $30,000 will be given to the 2025 Aurora Tech Award winner, while $20,000 and $15,000 will go to the second and third place winners, respectively.
Ten thousand dollars will go to the fourth and fifth places, respectively.
Exclusive access to the ideal investors, industry leaders, and strategic partners who can significantly impact their company will be granted to each finalist.
Additionally, the winners will get access to inDrive’s staff, experience, and worldwide network, which will provide them with the tools and resources they need to expand internationally, get capital, and grow more quickly.
The flagship event brought together the top 10 finalists from around the world — women building market-defining ventures — to compete for the main award prizes.
This year’s shortlist featured groundbreaking innovators from MENA, LATAM, Central Asia, and APAC, whose startups span diverse industries, including artificial intelligence, fintech, and health tech.
An unprecedented 2,018 applications from 116 nations were submitted for the 2025 edition of the prize, more than twice as many as the year before.
Entreprenelle, a prominent Egyptian organisation committed to empowering women through education, training, and entrepreneurial assistance, hosted the competition’s final round during the regional SHE CAN conference.
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Speaking on the award, Head of the Aurora Tech Awards, Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, said the platform was created to help support innovators to take their ideas further.
“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 aren’t here because of their gender. They’re here because they’re building businesses investors should care about. If the table wasn’t built for them, they didn’t wait for an invitation — they built their own. Aurora exists to ensure they get the capital, platform, and network to take it further.
