Nigerian IT Woman, Folake Owodunni, Wins Global Aurora Tech Award 2024

March 8th, 2024, was International Women's Day, sending out the call to “Commemorate women's achievement. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to drive gender parity,” and globally seeking to #InspireInclusion. So, what better day to announce the winners of this year’s Aurora Tech Award in a global ceremony viewed across the world??

The Award is inDrive’s annual global prize for women founders of tech startups , which aims to break down barriers and promote equality in tech entrepreneurship. The winners of the Aurora Tech Award 2024 receive cash prizes of $30,000, $20,000, and $10,000 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, respectively; more importantly, they gain access to an inDrive mentorship program. (To see who the mentors are, and what we believe that mentorship is the prize that keeps on giving, read here ).?

Enough with the preliminaries! Here are our brilliant 2024 winners:

Folake Owodunni from Nigeria won first place for her groundbreaking startup, Emergency Response Africa . Dedicated to making healthcare accessible in Africa, Owodunni's innovative solution provides sustainable and scalable emergency medical services, addressing critical needs in the region.?

Sarah Molema, Botswana: founder of Deaftronics (Pty) Ltd. Deaftronics developed the first rechargeable hearing aid battery, which lasts for 2-3 years and can be used in 80% of hearing aids on the market today.?

Hannah T?pler, Mexico: founder and CEO of Intrare, a social tech that builds proprietary AI to eliminate bias from recruitment. Intrare’s mission is to match millions of refugees, marginalized women, LGBTIQ+, and other diverse talents with fair jobs, to break the poverty cycle. Here she discusses her work on YouTube .

Congratulations to the three winners! We hope to be hearing much more about these startups, the critical issues they address, and the amazing women who’ve created them, in the very near future.