Innovator Trust’s 2026 Women in Tech Awards nominees demonstrate what endurance makes possible

An idea may launch a business, but endurance is written in every season that follows. The women nominated for the 2026 Innovator Trust Women in Tech Awards have carried their businesses through those seasons. Their results in revenue, growth and job creation give this year’s theme, Tech Believers, a practical meaning. This year’s nominees send a clear message: belief in technology is not only about excellent ideas, but about the willingness to act and put them to work. It is the choice to build a business around possibility, then keep shaping it as real markets demand over time.

It goes without saying that these businesses were not built overnight; their paths have moved through different seasons, and progress has not always been smooth. A recurring theme links the nominees: persistence, adapting, serving customers and continuing to build through change. The categories offer different views of that longer journey, showing how belief is sustained as each business reaches for what comes next.

The Overall Enterprise Development Top Female Year-to-Date Achiever for Actual Turnover category recognises commercial scale over April 2025 to March 2026. Its nominees are Katalitix and Simphiwe Security Consulting, Samo Engineering, Tala Consulting. Revenue reflects demand for a business’s services and its ability to convert capability into revenue over time, measuring the foundations built to endure.

The companion category, Overall Enterprise Development Top Female Year-to-Date Revenue Percentage Growth, focuses on the pace of increase. Olem Business Boutique and Bilion Power Solutions, Liya Tech and SM Solutions PE Trading are the nominees. Together, these categories recognise distinct parts of progress: building a substantial revenue base and continuing to grow it.

Supplier Development’s Top Achiever for Highest Percentage Growth recognises Fresh Minds Marketing and Communication, Glenshade Holdings and Synergy Trading & Projects. The category widens the picture to growth within a supplier development pathway. It points to the value of businesses deepening their participation in the technology economy and taking their capabilities further.

The Top Enterprise Development Female Achievers Q1 (April 2026 – June 2026) category recognises Distinco, Jalusi Tech, Owethu Managed Services as nominees. It reflects how progress is renewed through the decisions, delivery, and adjustments that keep a business moving through each season. The Top Enterprise Development Female Employment Creator Growth Percentage category extends the story to the people behind the work. SM Solutions PE Trading (Pty) Ltd, Samo Engineering, New Era IT and Simphiwe Security Consulting are nominated for percentage employment growth between April 2025 and March 2026. The category recognises businesses whose growth creates room for more people to contribute and grow alongside them.

CEO of the Innovator Trust, Tashline Jooste, highlights: “Behind these figures are women who have kept building through different seasons. Revenue, growth and employment each reveal part of that journey, and together they show the patience and belief it takes to build a business over time. These nominations recognise what the women have achieved and bring their capabilities into view, creating space for new partnerships and opportunities.”

Jooste also notes the categories reveal a story of endurance as well as achievement. Revenue, growth and employment each offer a different measure of progress, while the nominations bring the women’s capabilities to wider attention and open conversations about future opportunities.

WIT recognises female-owned SMEs in South Africa’s ICT sector that have participated in the Innovator Trust’s Enterprise Development, Youth Entrepreneurship or Supplier Development programmes. The programmes help businesses digitise, monetise, and scale. The awards bring that progress, and the women behind it, before a wider audience.

The nominees will be recognised at the Innovator Trust Women in Tech Awards on 24 November 2026. Their journeys highlight that belief is not a single leap or moment of success, but rather, it is sustained through seasons of work, carried forward by women who keep believing; through women who keep building and by a technology sector ready to meet them there.

You can register to join virtually here.