Aurora Ventures launches with backing from inDrive – a global mobility and delivery platform scaled to unicorn status across the same emerging markets the program is investing in – for its 2026 pilot year. Nigeria is one of the project’s priority markets.
The launch follows the successful conclusion of the 2026 Aurora Tech Award in Santiago, Chile, where a Nigerian, Adeola Ayoola-Famasi, was named among the top 10 finalists from a record-breaking field of 3,400 applicants.
Aurora Ventures, an early-stage investment program, is designed to leverage one of the world’s largest pipelines of underserved female talent. It is built on a proprietary sourcing advantage derived from five years of Aurora Tech Award data.
With applications exploding by nearly 30 times since 2021, the Award noticed a persistent market inefficiency, fuelled by high-traction, high-growth businesses led by women in MENA, Africa, and Latin America, which are consistently undervalued and overlooked by traditional venture capital.
Speaking on the initiative, Head of Aurora Ventures, Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, described the launch of Aurora Ventures as a disciplined investment program built on the conviction that women founders are 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,” said Ghassemi-Smith.
