Jury 2023

Learn more about our jury members and get inspired by their projects

Adora Nwodo
Founder, AdoraHack

Adora is the co-founder of unStack Africa, a conference for tech talents in and around Africa which focuses on workshops and talks to empower people by practically taking them through the rudiments.

She is also Vice President of the Nigerian chapter for the VRAR Association, an avenue where she enlightens young individuals about the potential in Mixed Reality technologies.

Sadaffe Abid
Founder & CEO of CIRCLE

Sadaffe Abid, Founder & CEO of CIRCLE is an advocate of women's economic empowerment and inclusion. She is championing digital and financial inclusion of women and designed the impactful Digital Literacy Programme with UN Women support to bridge the digital gender divide. Sadaffe is former CEO and COO of Kashf Foundation, one of Forbes Top 50 microfinance institutions that she helped grow from two rooms to serve 300,000 low income women through a network of 130 branches across the country.

She has been an adviser to Dell Women Entrepreneurship Network (DWEN) and former board member and Chairperson National Bank of Pakistan Inclusive Development Committee. She serves as the Vice Chair of the Pakistan Microfinance Network with members serving 7 million micro and small borrowers and 50% women members. Sadaffe completed her Masters at the Harvard Kennedy School, Advanced Management Program at INSEAD and her B.A. at Mount Holyoke College. She is a recipient of the Mount Holyoke Alumni Achievement Award for her contributions to serve women and communities. Her work at Kashf has been profiled in Nicholas Kristoff’s book, “ Half the Sky”.

Ruchika Singhal
President of Medtronic LABS

Ruchika is the president of Medtronic LABS, a non-profit initiative conceived by Medtronic to design, build and scale technology-powered healthcare delivery solutions to improve access to care for underserved communities around the world. Ruchika is a healthcare technology veteran, having worked at Medtronic for a decade and a half driving strategy, international market development and new product development.

Mai Medhat
CEO and co-founder of Eventtus

Mai Medhat is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 13 years of experience in the tech industry. She's currently the founder of a stealth startup operating in the Voice AI and Sales tech sector.

Previously, as the CEO and co-founder of Eventtus, Mai achieved a remarkable exit by successfully selling the company to global industry leader Bevy. In her role as VP of Innovation at Bevy, she continues to push the boundaries of technology and business strategy.

Mai boasts a strong track record in fundraising, business strategy, financial planning, and operational excellence. Her entrepreneurial prowess earned her the title of "Entrepreneur of the Year" from Arabian Business in 2016. Furthermore, she gained international recognition at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2016, where she was celebrated as one of the most promising entrepreneurs. Mai's influence extended to participating in a prestigious panel discussion alongside Former President Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook, representing Middle East startups on a global stage.

Adrienne Doolan
CEO of Green Touches

Adrienne is the CEO of Green Touches, a professional consulting & service provider of sustainable Facility Management (FM) in the Middle East.

Combining a genuine passion for the environment, promoting a sustainable way of life and working with integrity, her company Green Touches, founded in 2015, has brought an entirely new concept to the Facility Management industry in the Middle East, striving to be disruptors within this industry towards achieving sustainability.

Leonor Cogneau
Ex-head of User Experience at Carsome

Leonor Cogneau is the Head of User Experience at Carsome, Malaysia's first unicorn startup. Drawing from her background in consulting and her ability to connect UX to a business strategy, she has helped companies with millions of customers reach their goals. Leonor is also a former instructor at Nanyang Technological University, a global mentor and an advocate for women in Tech. 

Mayra Castro
Founder of InvestAmazonia

A connector and partnership catalyst, Mayra is a lawyer and holds a master degree in International and European Law by the University of Geneva-Switzerland.

As part of a life mission, she has founded InvestAmazonia, an amazonian-based company that uses regional expertise and international experience to design projects and partnerships based on disruptive mindset, partnership and strategy.

Charlot Magayi
Founder and CEO of Mukuru Clean Stoves

Charlot Magayi is the founder and CEO of Mukuru Clean Stoves, a 2022 Earthshot Prize Winner. Orphaned at the age of 10, Charlot grew up in Mukuru, one of the biggest slums in Nairobi, and became a mother at age 16.

When her two-year-old daughter suffered a severe burn injury caused by a traditional stove, Charlot was moved to provide safer cooking technologies for her community. She founded Mukuru Clean Stoves to help mothers keep their children safe, save on fuel consumption, and reduce household air pollution. She has been recognized and awarded for her fight against household air pollution, energy poverty and her work to empower marginalized women in Kenya.

Sahra-Josephine Hjorth
CEO of Green Touches

Award winning entrepreneur Sahra-Josephine Hjorth has spent the past six years creating analog and digital social learning experiences with groundbreaking results. She is the co-founder and CEO of the first-of-its-kind learning experience platform CanopyLAB.

Sullyen Almeida
Principal at monashees

Sullyen Almeida is Principal at monashees, a pioneer venture capital firm in Latin America founded in 2005 that partners with outstanding founders who are revolutionizing large markets, where she coordinates investments in enterprise software, health, ML/AI, education, and other emerging technologies.

Sullyen has +8 years of experience with Venture Capital, helping companies with fundraising, strategy, and growth. She has a BSc in Industrial Engineering and technical training in Geomatics from UNICAMP and has studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago as a scholar of the Science Without Borders Program.

Ahu Serter
Founder of Arya Women’s Investment Platform

Ahu Serter is the founder of Arya Women’s Investment Platform, an organization which presents successful investors with opportunities to strategically invest in ambitious female entrepreneurs. Since its inception in 2015, the platform has invested more than $500,000 in women-led businesses.

Tatyana Terentyeva
General Counsel at inDrive

Tatiana Terentyeva is a highly accomplished legal professional with a diverse educational background and a proven track record in the corporate world. She has been serving as the General Counsel at inDrive since 2015, where her expertise and leadership have been instrumental in steering the company through complex legal challenges and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Tatiana’s educational path is a tale of two passions: Philology and Law. In 2022, she added a dynamic twist to her journey by completing the Stanford LEAD program, enhancing her strategic thinking and leadership prowess. As a representative of a small native ethnicity from Siberia, Tatiana’s journey is a testament to her determination to break barriers and champion diversity. Her leadership extends beyond her legal expertise, making her a role model for women aspiring to succeed in their chosen fields and driving force for positive change in her organization and the broader professional community.

Sardana Mikheeva
VP of Operations at inDrive

VP of Operations at inDrive, a global transportation network company. It currently operates in over 700+ cities in 47 countries and serves 150M users.

She is passionate about women's leadership and her personal goal for the future is to be able to mentor other young female professionals so as to help them realize and unleash their full potential in the world of business.

Ainura Sagyn
Co-founder and CEO of Tazar

Co-founder and CEO of Tazar, a platform that helps to collect and dispose of recyclable materials from Bishkek city.


Ainura Sagyn is included in the list of the most influential and inspiring women of 2022 according to the BBC.


Winner of the Aurora Tech Award 2021.

Sadaffe Abid
Social entrepreneur leading CIRCLE

Sadaffe Abid is a social entrepreneur leading CIRCLE, a social enterprise working on women's empowerment & inclusion through technology, leadership development & entrepreneurship. She designed the CIRCLE's flagship initiative, #TechKaro initiated in 2018 to bring digital skills like coding, design & digital marketing to youth especially women from underserved communities to bridge the digital gender divide, increase their confidence, livelihoods & contribute to Pakistan's economy.

Jury 2023

Learn more about our jury members and get inspired by their projects

Adora Nwodo
Founder, AdoraHack
Ruchika Singhal
President of Medtronic LABS
Adrienne Doolan
CEO of Green Touches
Mayra Castro
Founder of InvestAmazonia
Sahra-Josephine Hjorth
CEO of Green Touches
Ahu Serter
Founder of Arya Women’s Investment Platform
Sardana Mikheeva
VP of Operations at inDrive
Ainura Sagyn
Co-founder and CEO of Tazar
Sadaffe Abid
Social entrepreneur leading CIRCLE
More info

Shortlist 2023

Meet our finalists and explore their startups

Marie-Reine Seshie
from Ghana
Elizabeth Mwangi
from Kenya
Folake Owodunni
from Nigeria
Marisa Paramita
from Indonesia
Carol Kakooza
from Uganda
Karina Ojanguren Carreira
from Argentina
Lauren Yen
from USA
Princess Oti
from Nigeria
Adila Shaukat
from Pakistan
Aira Mongush
from Tyva (Russia)
Hira Saeed
from Pakistan
Faiza Yousuf
from Pakistan
Cynthia Asije
from Nigeria
Sonal Majeethia
from India
Iva Gumnishka
from Bulgaria
Loide Dawid
from Namibia
Ifedayo Durosinmi-Etti
from Nigeria
Monsurah Alli-Oluwafuyi
from Nigeria
Anna Ngwenyi Mafor
from Cameroon
Olapeju Umah
from Nigeria
Ifeoma Nwobu
from Nigeria
Anggaris Anggia (Ghea) Cininta P
from Indonesia
Namya Mahajan
from India
Show all finalists

Winners 2023

Discover the winners who have achieved excellence in the Aurora Tech Award!

Elizabeth Mwangi
1st place

Elizabeth Mwangi (Kenya) and Gwiji for Women, connecting cleaners living in the slums of Nairobi with their clients.

For the economic empowerment of Nairobi women, for creating an incredible idea in order to help her community.

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

Iva Gumnishka
2nd place

Iva Gumnishka (Bulgaria) and her company Humans in the Loop, data annotation services for computer vision.


For restoring faith in people who are still behind artificial intelligence technologies, for reflecting the power and generosity of the person behind technology.

Namya Mahajan
3rd place

Namya Mahajan (India) and her Rocket Learning startup that organizes digital teacher-parent communities.


For making early childhood education available to low-income families, for building a cost-effective and scalable model that can impact the future of our children today.

Award ceremony recording 2023

Relive the moment and experience the excitement of the award ceremony