SholaAkinlade

Shola Akinlade embodies the Nigerian startup dream. In 2015, he co-founded Paystack, a payments company, with an old schoolmate, Ezra Olubi. The pair set out to unblock the Nigerian digital economy by offering businesses and individuals new ways to transact online. In November 2015, Paystack was accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator program, helping to propel it on its journey toward becoming one of Africa’s most prominent tech companies. In 2020, Akinlade and his team sold Paystack to the U.S. fintech giant Stripe for $200 million. Since then Paystack has made small and major moves including becoming the first African payment gateway partner for Apple Pay and expanding to South Africa.