Shola Akinlade

Shola Akinlade is a Nigerian technology entrepreneur and software engineer who co-founded Paystack with Ezra Olubi in 2015 and has led the company from its early development into one of Africa's most significant payments technology businesses. Under his leadership, Paystack became the first Nigerian company accepted into Y Combinator, secured backing from global technology and financial institutions including Stripe, Visa and Tencent, and was acquired by Stripe in 2020. Akinlade has remained central to Paystack's expansion across African markets and, in 2026, continued to lead the broader Stack Group as it entered its second decade with ambitions extending beyond payments into wider financial and business infrastructure. His career represents a significant chapter in the emergence of Nigerian-founded technology companies with continental operations and global strategic backing.