The Aurora Tech Award—one of the few global programs singularly dedicated to elevating female tech founders in emerging markets—has dropped its Top 100 Founders to Watch for 2026, and the numbers tell a story that’s bigger than any single startup.
This year’s edition drew 3,400 applications from 127 countries, a major leap from 2025’s 2,018 entries across 116 nations. Emerging markets aren’t just participating in the global tech economy—they’re accelerating it, and women are increasingly leading the charge.
The Top 100 spans every major region Aurora covers, but the largest waves of applications came from Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Colombia, Egypt, Brazil, India, Chile, Pakistan, and Mexico—a lineup that mirrors where global tech momentum is shifting.
Innovation With a Pulse
If last year hinted at it, the 2026 cohort confirms it: healthtech is the dominant category. Twenty-three startups in the Top 100 play somewhere in the healthcare ecosystem—digital medical tools, longevity, mental wellbeing, sports tech, productivity platforms for clinicians, life sciences, and more. For founders in markets where healthcare infrastructure often strains under demand, the sector’s popularity makes perfect sense. They’re solving problems that aren’t theoretical—they’re lived.
Like last year, agritech and edtech hold strong at the top of the pipeline. And across all of these categories, one pattern is impossible to miss:
AI is the default tech stack. Not a differentiator, not a bonus feature—an expectation.
Paired with blockchain and IoT, AI is powering new solutions across education, agriculture, healthcare, and energy. The founders entering the award pipeline aren’t dabbling in emerging technologies—they’re building with them as foundational tools.
Fintech’s Fast Climb
Fintech also made a noticeable leap this year, with 19 fintech startups landing spots in the Top 100. A key driver: Aurora’s dedicated fintech track in partnership with inDrive.Money, which expanded the pool of high-quality founders solving for financial inclusion, mobile payments, cross-border commerce, credit access, and digital-first banking.
It’s not just a sign of fintech’s durability in turbulent markets—it’s a signal that women founders are designing financial systems that better reflect the realities of the communities they serve.
A Regional Breakdown Worth Watching
Several regional trends shape the 2026 landscape:
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HR tech: Strongest cohort from Latin America, followed by Africa and MENA. The HR tech boom mirrors corporate digitization—and remote work—throughout the Global South.
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Agritech: Most prominent in Africa and LATAM, with a heavy B2B tilt. These startups are leaning into precision agriculture, logistics optimization, and farm-to-market intelligence.
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Edtech: Still a major player, with 18 AI-forward companies in the Top 100. Adoption of AI in edtech isn’t incremental—it’s mainstream.
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Energy-for-agriculture innovation: Particularly strong in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, where foodtech and agritech overlap with clean-energy innovation.
Across every region, founders are prioritizing models aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals—a sharp pivot from growth-at-all-costs tech narratives dominating Silicon Valley. For Aurora’s applicants, “impact” isn’t branding; it’s product strategy.
B2B Rules the Emerging Markets
Business models skew strongly toward B2B, especially in:
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Chile: 84%
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India: 79%
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Peru: 69%
In markets where consumer purchasing power varies widely, enterprise clients offer stability—and B2B SaaS plays are gaining traction, especially in fintech, supply chain, climate tech, and HR tech.
What Founders Are Asking Investors For
Aurora’s open call also serves as a global barometer for how much capital early-stage founders are chasing. The numbers reveal stark regional differences:
Highest funding asks (approximate):
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India: $1.25M
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Kenya: $840K
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Colombia: $620K
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Egypt: $540K
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Nigeria: $510K
Moderate capital needs (~$380K–$500K):
Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Pakistan, Chile, Kazakhstan
Lowest funding asks:
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Peru: ~$300K
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Morocco: ~$340K
These figures map closely to ecosystem maturity: India’s founders are swinging bigger; Peru’s emerging cohort is playing a disciplined, early-stage game.
“The Top Three Percent”
“From more than 3,400 applications, our Top 100 represent the top three percent—truly exceptional founders,” said Isabella Ghassemi-Smith, Head of the Aurora Tech Award.
“They’re building commercially powerful, category-defining companies that solve real problems their communities and markets face.”
Her point underscores why Aurora stands apart from many startup competitions: the award isn’t about the pitch—it’s about the problem being solved and the traction behind it.
The Network Effect
Aurora’s venture network—spanning LATAM, MENA, Africa, and South Asia—now covers an estimated 70% of the world’s top emerging-market innovation hubs. It’s both a reflection of investor appetite for diverse founders and a signal that Aurora’s platform is becoming an important connector for downstream capital.
Founders who win can access up to $50,000 in non-dilutive funding, tailored advisory, investor introductions, and a level of global visibility that’s often hard to reach from emerging markets.
Last year’s 2025 winners spotlighted that potential:
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1st: Solape Akinpelu (HerVest, Nigeria)
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2nd: Loretxu Garcia Arraztoa (Nido Contech, Chile)
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3rd: Shreya Prakash (FlexiBees, India)
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4th: Laura Velásquez Herrera (Arkangel AI, Colombia)
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5th: Leonie Korn (UpLeap, Switzerland)
Their trajectories underscore why Aurora matters: for founders fighting systemic bias and funding gaps, visibility is leverage.
What’s Next
The 2026 finalists will be announced in February, with a global awards ceremony later in the year. Given the size and geographic breadth of this cohort, Aurora’s spotlight could serve as a forecasting tool for where the next wave of global tech innovation will emerge.
If the numbers from this year are any indication, the next generation of billion-dollar companies may come not from Silicon Valley, but from Nairobi, Lahore, Santiago, Lagos, or Almaty—and many will have women at the helm.
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