Aurora Ventures

About Aurora Ventures

Aurora Ventures is a pilot-stage fund anchored by unicorn ride-hailing platform inDrive, backing women founders in emerging markets across MENA, Africa, and Latin America. Led by Isabella "Bella" Ghassemi-Smith, the fund evolved from the Aurora Tech Award (3,400 applicants across 127 countries in 2025). Deploys up to $250K checks into 5-7 pre-seed and seed startups in 2026, with a formal GP/LP fund structure planned for 2027.

Investment Focus

Location / RegionUnited Arab Emirates

Funding StagePre Seed

Industry Focus

Ai Ml

Consumer Commerce

Fintech

Investor Signals Profile

active

Sweet Spot

Women-founded pre-seed startup in MENA, Africa, or Latin America

women-founders

emerging-markets

MENA

Africa

LatAm

Bullish Signals

3,400 applicants across 127 countries pipelineblog

inDrive unicorn anchor backingblog

5 years sourcing before first checkblog

Contrarian Signals

Pilot vehicle, not formal GP/LP yetblog

Very small checks, $180-250K rangeblog

Founder Do's

Be a women-founded startup

Build in MENA, Africa, or Latin America

Target pre-seed or seed with up to $250K

Show strong local market traction

Apply through Aurora Tech Award pipeline

Founder Don'ts

Pitch outside MENA, Africa, LatAm

Expect institutional-scale checks

Ignore the inDrive corporate LP advantage

Key GPs & Partners

IGS

Isabella Ghassemi-Smith

Founder & General Partner

community-builderemerging-marketsgender-lens

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Fund Overview

Fund SizeUSD

Saves0

Key People