Aina Olamide

Founding Partner, Ventures Platform

Kola is a seasoned Investor, Entrepreneur, Non-Executive Director and company Chair, passionate about seeing start-ups grow. He is the General Partner at Ventures Platform fund - a leading Pan African Early Stage Venture Capital Fund. He brings demonstrable success from leading investment in over 90 companies in Africa, India and the US, including payments companies such as Paystack. Recognised as an entrepreneur, technology operator and investor with vast experience working in Africa’s most significant economic market, he brings expertise across several sectors, including venture capital, technology, media, agriculture, infrastructure, publishing and real estate and a substantial interest in the arts. Through Ventures Platform Foundation, he works on advocacy, research and social impact initiatives that support youth entrepreneurship, civic engagement and innovation. He is the Founder of Ventures Park – a network of artsy innovation and co-working spaces. He is a Tutu Fellow and a mentor with various programs, including - XL Africa, the World Bank Accelerator and Google Launchpad Accelerator. He is also a board member and advisory board member of various organisations ranging from ARM Financial Advisers, Iron Global Markets, Reliance HMO and the Yemisi Shyllon Art Museum - to name a few. Kola studied Electrical Engineering and then secured a Master’s in Business Administration degree specialising in Finance. He has received further education from Berkeley University, Harvard University, and the Lagos Business School. Kola is passionate about mentoring and advising young entrepreneurs who are creating solutions for mass underserved -markets. This has put him on many stages, both locally and internationally, where he has delivered speeches, lectures, and talks on technology, entrepreneurship, social change, and various other topics. He gave a TED talk at TEDxEuston where he spoke on the topic “Who will own our future unicorns?â€. He was also a speaker at Techcrunch's first event in Nigeria, Techcrunch Startup Battlefield Africa 2019. He has received multiple awards and has been featured in various lists such as The 20 most important people in Nigerian tech, The ten most influential people in Nigerian Tech and #YNaijaPowerList2018 for Technology and many more. In his spare time, he enjoys writing on topics he’s passionate about in his blog or on Twitter, reading books and spending time with his family.