The platform Aurora Ventures has announced the launch of its 2026 pilot program, supported by inDrive, a global leader in smart mobility and delivery services that has achieved unicorn status across several emerging markets. The Kingdom of Morocco is among the key target markets for this new investment initiative.
This launch follows the success of the Aurora Tech Awards 2026, held in Santiago, Chile, which recorded a historic participation of more than 3,400 women entrepreneurs from around the world. Several founders stood out during the final stages, including Nigerian entrepreneur Adiola Ayoola-Famasi, who ranked among the Top 10 finalists.
The final list of the ten leading entrepreneurs includes: Adriana Gonzales-Tieso (Panama), Angela Acosta-Morado (Colombia), Catalina Isaza-Inmetek (Colombia), Estefania Abello-Mota (Colombia), Maria Kawas-Domestic Co (Chile), Mariana Zuliani-Unco AI (Brazil), Mercedes Bedart-Kiipo (Colombia), Patricia Florencia-Bello (Mexico), and Biny Musengi-Besera Technologies (Kenya).
The Aurora Tech Award is positioned as an early-stage investment platform aimed at leveraging one of the world’s largest underutilized pools of female entrepreneurial talent. It builds on a competitive advantage derived from data accumulated over five years through the Aurora Tech Award program.
With applications increasing nearly 30-fold since 2021, the initiative highlights a structural market inefficiency. Female-founded startups across Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, and Latin America continue to demonstrate strong growth rates, yet remain undervalued and under-recognized by traditional venture capital funds.
In this context, a recent study conducted by Aurora Ventures across more than 900 entrepreneurs in 127 countries reveals a pattern of what it describes as a “systematic questioning of competence,” along with stricter evaluation standards applied to women-led business growth.
The program aims to address this valuation gap by offering investments ranging from $180,000 to $250,000 in pre-seed and seed stages. It also leverages the Aurora Tech Award network to identify promising startups early, before market valuations fully reflect their actual performance. The objective is to build a scalable investment model capable of generating strong returns in emerging markets.
In a statement, Isabella Gasmi Smith, Director of Aurora Ventures, emphasized that the program represents a disciplined investment model grounded in the belief that women entrepreneurs constitute one of the most overlooked opportunities in venture capital.
She added that the past five years have revealed a recurring pattern: women founders building high-performing companies, yet often facing delayed access to institutional capital and less favorable terms compared to their actual performance.
She further noted that the success stories of the award’s ten finalists reflect the quality and scale of the opportunities targeted by the initiative.
For his part, Andrés Smit, Head of Business Growth at inDrive, stated:
“We built inDrive despite many challenges and competed with better-funded incumbents. We are seeing the same scenario today with women founders in emerging markets. Supporting Aurora Ventures is not philanthropy; it is the same bet we made on ourselves.”
The 2026 pilot program focuses on building an initial investment portfolio in Morocco and other emerging markets. It also aims to develop a scalable model based on a public-private partnership structure (GP/LP).
Additionally, it seeks to accelerate startup growth through direct funding, improved access to investor and expert networks, and operational support, enabling companies to reach subsequent funding rounds under fairer and more balanced conditions.
