Dr Ola Brown built West Africa’s first air ambulance service, then backed African tech startups.
Born in London, the physician and entrepreneur founded Flying Doctors in Lagos in 2007 and later co-founded a venture firm that invested in Paystack.
Ola Brown, formerly Ola Orekunrin, was born in London in 1986 and studied medicine at the Hull York Medical School. She worked in acute medicine in the United Kingdom, and a Japanese government scholarship took her to Tokyo for research on stem cells.
She later trained in aviation medicine. After losing her sister, she said she wanted to improve medical services in Nigeria, and in 2007 she established Flying Doctors in Lagos. It was West Africa’s first air-operated emergency medical service.
From medicine to investing
She studied finance and economic policy at the University of London and in July 2018, with Olabode Agusto and Abasiama Idaresit, founded Greentree Investment Company, an early-stage venture firm that provides capital to African technology startups. Its investments include Paystack, Precurio and Big Cabal Media.
She was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2013.
Her path joins two questions founders often ask separately: how do I solve a hard problem, and who will fund the next person solving one?
