Kola was the final speaker at TEDxEuston METAMORPHOSIS and closed with his ambitious talk with a call to action to the continent and its diaspora. He asks boldly: “Who will own African’s future unicorn companies?” and takes the audience on a journey of how we must all become builders and investors in order to champion the development on the continent and its diaspora.


Kola Aina is an entrepreneur, creative, and investor. He is the Founding Partner of Ventures Platform, a seed stage fund and accelerator which focuses on supporting gritty founders building the future of Africa. Kola chairs the board of Ventures Park, Nigeria’s Premier Co-working & co-living campus. He is also the founder of other thriving companies, Emerging Platforms Ltd, an enterprise software company an EduPlatforms Ltd, and Edutech provider.


Kola is an active mentor, having most recently mentored on the XL Africa World Bank supported acceleration Program; and currently serves on the Presidential Committee on Job Creation.


Intro music ‘Castle Poles’, created by DJ Rachael. Find out more about African ideas worth spreading at www.tedxeuston.com and sign up to our mailing list http://eepurl.com/d8zKn
Kola Aina is an entrepreneur, creative, and investor. He is the Founding Partner of Ventures Platform, a seed stage fund and accelerator which focuses on supporting gritty founders building the future of Africa. Kola chairs the board of Ventures Park, Nigeria’s Premier Co-working & co-living campus. He is also the founder of other thriving companies, Emerging Platforms Ltd, an enterprise software company an EduPlatforms Ltd, and ed-tech provider.
Prior to focusing on venture building, Kola worked in corporate finance, administration, corporate turn-around and strategy, having started off as a financial analyst with Fifth-Third Bank, after his MBA and initial training as an Electrical Engineer in the United States.
Kola is an active mentor, having most recently mentored on the XL Africa World Bank supported acceleration Program; and currently serves on the Presidential Committee on Job Creation. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx