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Tag: Adeola Ayoola

  • 2026 Aurora Tech Award: Top 10 Finalists Unveiled

    2026 Aurora Tech Award: Top 10 Finalists Unveiled

    The Aurora Tech Award, the only global award dedicated to supporting outstanding female tech founders from emerging markets, has unveiled its Top 10 Finalists for 2026.

    The finalists were selected following a rigorous multi-stage evaluation process from a record 3,400 applications submitted across 127 countries. The Top 10 emerged from an initial Top 100 shortlist, reflecting the continued rise of female entrepreneurship in emerging economies and the growing quality of women-led startups building scalable solutions in high-growth markets.

    The 2026 Top 10 includes founders from Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, and Panama, among others, showcasing the depth of innovation across emerging markets. The startups address real, local challenges, from improving access to credit and healthcare insights, to digitising recycling value chains, strengthening agricultural supply chains, and expanding financial inclusion for underserved communities.

    Among the 2026 Top 10 Finalists are:

    Adeola Ayoola, Founder of Famasi (Nigeria) – Famasi is a seed-stage healthtech platform that enables pharmacies to manage operations and track stock in real time across a connected network. By improving visibility of medicine availability, the platform allows prescriptions to be routed to nearby pharmacies where medication is in stock, improving access and efficiency for patients.

    Penny Musengi, Founder of Pesira Technologies (Kenya) – Pesira Technologies is a seed-stage agritech platform bridging Africa’s agricultural digital divide by connecting farmers, agribusinesses, and finance providers within a unified ecosystem. The platform expands access to financial services and digital marketplaces, supporting farm growth and strengthening agricultural supply chains.

    The Top 10 Finalists will pitch at a global event later in the year, where the winners will receive non-dilutive funding, direct access to Aurora’s Global VC Network, and continued support designed to help them scale sustainably.

    This year’s cohort represents a diverse mix of regions and sectors, with strong representation from Latin America, Africa, and other emerging ecosystems. The selected startups operate across critical industries, including Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, HealthTech, Sustainability, Agritech, HRTech, and Enterprise Software. All finalists are at either pre-seed or seed stage, demonstrating strong early traction and high potential for scalable impact.

    Powered by inDrive, Aurora’s selection process is built on investor conviction. Each year, thousands of applications are reviewed through a structured, multi-layered framework that combines independent assessments by venture capital partners with Aurora’s own execution benchmarks.

    The award collaborates with a curated network of more than 40 venture capital firms across Latin America, the MENA region, Africa, and South Asia. Startups are evaluated by investors with direct experience in the relevant regions, sectors, and growth stages, ensuring informed and sector-specific assessments rather than generic scoring.

    Beyond quantitative evaluation, investors signal which founders they would actively engage with, making demonstrated investor interest a core determinant of selection. To determine the Top 10 Finalists, three key factors are considered: independent VC evaluations, expressed investor conviction, and overall performance during Aurora’s initial assessment stages. The result is more than recognition; it provides founders with enhanced visibility, credibility, capital access, and strategic positioning to accelerate their next stage of growth.

  • Lafarge Africa deepens awareness on Gender-Based Violence, takes campaign to school

    Lafarge Africa deepens awareness on Gender-Based Violence, takes campaign to school

    Lafarge Africa Plc, a leading innovative and sustainable building solutions company and manufacturer of a range of cement brands, has launched an awareness campaign on gender-based violence across its communities as part of activities to commemorate the International Women’s Day.

    Speaking during the gender-based sensitization and defense workshop held at Onitolo Community Senior High School, Lagos, the Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainability Director, Lafarge Africa Plc, Viola Graham-Douglas explained that the workshop was organized with the aim of helping young girls to understand the meaning of gender-based violence and the right approach to address and avoid it.

    According to Graham-Douglas, gender-based violence is not just about inflicting physical harm to the victims. She said, ‘Gender-based violence is any action that makes you feel unsafe, disrespected, or powerless because of your gender. If someone or a situation makes you feel uncomfortable or afraid, trust your gut, speak up and talk to someone that you trust. You are protecting yourself, and that is always the right thing to do.’ 

    She further said, ‘Today’s workshop serves as a huge opportunity for us to assist those that need support. We need to make them aware of how best to defend themselves should they find themselves in any form of abuse.’

    She later shared affirmations with the young girls and encouraged them to be bold, confident and self-aware whether at school, or anywhere else they find themselves.

    Also speaking during the workshop, the Chief Executive Officer of Famasi Africa, Adeola Ayoola, charged the young girls to be bold and courageous in confronting their fears by exposing those people involved in gender-based violence. She added that being bold and courageous would bring shame to the actors.

    Ayoola urged young women and girls to avoid seeking people’s validation for their actions as this could make them vulnerable to gender-based violence. She, therefore, charged them to be self-confident and believe in themselves.

    “When you are seeking validity, you just want everybody to like you. Doing this will make you vulnerable to gender-based violence, especially at your age. This is because there is a whole lot going on in the lives of teenagers.” She said.

    In her remarks, the Chief Executive Officer, The Re-Direct Academy, Helen Oladele, a gender-based advocate, stressed the need for young ladies to be disciplined and inculcate the right values that would help them shape the future they desire.

    Oladele explained that it has become necessary for young girls to have a voice to enable them to challenge any force(s) intended to inflict abuse on them.

    At a breakout session involving counsellors and volunteers from the company, each speaker took turns to share their experiences to the students, urging those who have been victims to fight the stigma and gain back their confidence.

    Part of the workshop activities was a taekwondo session with students taken through different martial arts as a form of self-defense against gender-based violence.

    The gender-based sensitization and defense workshop was put together by Lafarge Africa Plc in partnership with Education District IV, Lagos Ministry of Education.