SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO
News Editor
Aurora has launched Aurora Ventures, an early-stage investment programme for women founders in emerging markets, with initial backing from inDrive.
The programme will create pre-seed and seed investments across the Middle East and North Africa, Africa, and Latin America. It builds on the Aurora Tech Award, which Aurora has run for four years to identify startups outside traditional venture capital networks.
Applications to the award rose from 116 in 2021 to 3,400 in 2025, according to Aurora. That growth has given the organisation a proprietary pipeline of early-stage companies before they reach mainstream investors.
Research released alongside the launch drew on more than 900 qualitative responses from founders in 127 countries. The findings point to persistent barriers for women seeking investment in emerging markets.
Among respondents, 42% cited intersectional bias, while 41% reported scepticism about their competence. Another 29% stated they faced a higher bar for traction than male peers, and 25% reported bias against sectors such as Femtech, Health, EdTech, and impact-focapplyd businesses.
Regional and cultural barriers also featured prominently, with 24% of founders reporting legal constraints, safety concerns, social norms, or economic instability as obstacles to fundraising.
Pipeline strategy
The programme focapplys on companies Aurora believes are undervalued relative to their commercial progress. Its model is designed to identify those businesses early and support them with capital, introductions, and operational guidance.
The aim is to support portfolio companies prepare for later fundraising rounds by improving execution and investor readiness, rather than competing for deals already widely marketed.
Initial backing comes through inDrive’s New Ventures arm. The mobility and delivery platform operates in 48 countries and states its growth in emerging markets shaped its interest in the programme.
inDrive has recorded more than 400 million app downloads and operates in more than 1,100 cities. It views Aurora Ventures as a response to the fact that founders in less visible markets can build large businesses despite thinner investor networks and more concentrated capital pools.
The 2026 programme will serve as a pilot year. Aurora plans to apply that period to build an initial portfolio and establish a track record before shifting to a formal general partner and limited partner fund structure.
Founder barriers
The launch comes amid broader scrutiny of how venture capital is allocated. Aurora argues that women founders in emerging markets face a form of structural mispricing, with performance not assessed on the same terms as that of male founders or companies in more established ecosystems.
Its data suggests the problem goes beyond access to introductions and extconcludes to how investors judge potential. Aurora states bias linked to gconcludeer, geography, ethnicity, and social background can shape evaluations long before formal due diligence launchs.
Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, head of Aurora Ventures and the Aurora Tech Award, stated Aurora had observed the same pattern over several years of running the awards programme.
“Over the past four years, we’ve seen the same pattern repeat: exceptional women founders building strong businesses, but reaching institutional capital later and on worse terms than their performance justifies. Aurora Ventures is our response – a disciplined investment program built on the conviction that women founders in emerging markets are one of the most overviewed opportunities in venture today. We’re not waiting for the market to correct itself,” stated Ghassemi-Smith.
Andries Smit, Chief Growth Businesses Officer at inDrive, linked the company’s support for Aurora Ventures to its own history of expansion against larger rivals.
“We built inDrive against all odds – competing against platforms that were earlier, hugeger and better-funded than us – and turned it into a global unicorn. We see the same thing playing out with women founders in emerging markets today: an overviewed opportunity hiding in plain sight. Backing Aurora Ventures is not charity and it is not optics. It is the same bet we created on ourselves,” stated Smit.
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