Kola Aina
Partner @ Ventures Platform
Lagos, Nigeria
Kola Aina is an entrepreneur, technology operator and investor with vast experience working in Africa’s largest economic market. His prior entrepreneurial experience spans several sectors including venture capital, technology, media, agriculture, infrastructure, publishing and real estate. As an angel investor and while leading the early stageAfrican VC firm Ventures Platform. Venture Platform is a leading early stage African VC fund that provides founder friendly capital and support to early stage companies in a framework that is buoyed by corporate governance and hands-on support. Kola has lead investment in about 28 companies including Payments company; Paystack, Connectivity company; Tizeti, Healthcare company; MDaaS and the Agric-tech company; Thrive Agric.Kola, founded the enterprise technology company Emerging Platforms Limited, 9 years ago, quickly growing it to become one of the leading technology service delivery companies and leaders in the e-learning space in West Africa providing services to over 100,000 students. Emerging Platforms Limited is a software and technology firm that specializes in developing innovative technology solutions in education, national security and enterprise sectors.Prior to focusing on full time entrepreneurship, Kola worked in corporate finance, administration, corporate turn-around and strategy. He led strategy and finance for one of the largest publishing companies in Nigeria up till 2009. Before that he worked in corporate finance proving financial analysis at Fifth Third Bank in the USA.Kola is a leader in the African startup and investing ecosystem, a Ted speaker and volunteers his time advising founders, speaking at events and serves on the Presidential Committee for Job Creation and Youth Employment as well as the Private Sector Advisory Group to the Presidency on Creativity and Technology. Kola studied Electrical Engineering and then secured a Master in Business Administration degree with a specialization in Finance from Bowling Green State University, Ohio. He has received further education from Berkley University, Harvard University and the Lagos Business School.
- Total investments:
- 65
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 43%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Kola Aina invests in
Stages Kola Aina invests in
Countries Kola Aina invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Round size
- Seed
- $100k–$3.2M
- Pre-Seed
- $170k–$1.1M
Investment Focus
Industry
- FinTech 17 (26%)
- Financial Services 16 (25%)
- Internet 11 (17%)
- Finance 8 (12%)
- Payments 6 (9%)
Stage
- Seed 35 (54%)
- Pre-Seed 17 (26%)
- Non-equity Assistance 3 (5%)
- Series A 2 (3%)
Country
- Nigeria 31 (48%)
- United States 10 (15%)
- Kenya 2 (3%)
- Canada 1 (2%)
- Belgium 1 (2%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raenest helps African talents get paid in minutes by clients and businesses globally while saving costs on fees by automating their invoicing and using foreign bank accounts with cards to localise their payments | $11M / Series A / Feb 11, 2025 | ||
| MDaaS Global operates tech-enabled diagnostic centers in clinically-underserved communities. MDaaS Global connects low-income and middle-income patients with modern, convenient, and affordable diagnostic services, helping patients to identify health issues earlier, gain access to medical specialists and treatment options, and ultimately, livehealthier, happier lives. | $3M / Seed / Mar 06, 2024 | ||
| Shekel provides financing and management system software for auto dealerships. | $3.2M / Seed / Nov 13, 2023 | ||
| We improve business to business access to medicines by providing such medicines from manufactures/registered distributors direct to large and small healthcare retail businesses (large pharmacies and remote chemist/PPMVs (Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors)) using technology to deliver just-in-time stock and provide financing and awide selection of inventory to such retail business. | $8M / Series A / Aug 01, 2023 | ||
| Talstack is a subscription-based talent management platform that enables companies to identify learning gaps or growth areas and upskill their employees with tools and courses from Africa’s best operators. | $850K / Pre-Seed / Mar 10, 2023 | ||
| PressOne is on a mission to help entrepreneurs across Africa build world-class businesses. | $600K / Pre-Seed / Feb 10, 2023 | ||
| We build apps for building projects. Our apps are helping builders extend the value of every dollar and increasing the confidence of ordinary people to build. | $600K / Pre-Seed / Nov 10, 2022 | ||
| We improve business to business access to medicines by providing such medicines from manufactures/registered distributors direct to large and small healthcare retail businesses (large pharmacies and remote chemist/PPMVs (Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors)) using technology to deliver just-in-time stock and provide financing and awide selection of inventory to such retail business. | $4.4M / Seed / Sep 20, 2022 | ||
| Raenest helps African talents get paid in minutes by clients and businesses globally while saving costs on fees by automating their invoicing and using foreign bank accounts with cards to localise their payments | $700K / Pre-Seed / May 12, 2022 | ||
| Kibanda Topup digitizes the supply for micro, small and medium-sized restaurants. Kibanda Topup allows restaurant owners to order inventory such as grains, poultry, beverages, and beef by app through a simple SMS and get the orders the next day. | $1.7M / Seed / Mar 01, 2022 | ||
| See all 65 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Ventures Platform
Ventures Platform Fund is a discovery fund that invests early in mission-driven founders that are building capital-efficient platforms that democratise prosperity, plug infrastructural gaps, connect underrepresented communities, solve for non-consumption, and improve livelihoods in Africa.
Ventures Platform Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Dotun Olowoporoku
General Partner
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Kayode Oyewole
Partner
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Kola Aina
Partner
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FAQ
What does Kola Aina invest in?
Kola Aina invests primarily in FinTech, Financial Services and Internet startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 65 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Nigeria. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What round sizes does Kola Aina invest in?
Kola Aina typically joins rounds of $100k–$3.2M at Seed and $170k–$1.1M at Pre-Seed. These are whole funding-round sizes, not Kola Aina's own check, which is rarely disclosed: the 10th–90th percentile of the confirmed public funding rounds Kola Aina took part in.
How do I contact Kola Aina?
Public channels for Kola Aina include LinkedIn and X (Twitter). For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Kola Aina last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Kola Aina closed in Feb 2025. Shizune tracks 65 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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