Damilola Olokesusi
- Anglophone Africa
Meet Damilola
Damilola is the co-founder and CEO of Shuttlers, a Nigerian technology-driven transportation startup. Shuttlers is revolutionizing how professionals and organizations commute in the ever-busy Lagos and Abuja metropolis.
Early Milestones and Business Development
Damilola created Shuttlers in 2015 as a tech and transport company aimed at enabling professionals and organizations to share rides to and from work in corporate buses. Shuttlers enables users to improve their commuting time and to book trips along fixed routes at 60-80 percent lower rates than other ride-hailing services available in Lagos.
Under Damilola’s leadership, the company has been growing until raising a $1.6m seed funding in 2021 and announcing plans to expand into more African metropolitan cities.
More women like myself are now able to access finance, which was almost impossible a few years ago. With initiatives like eTrade for Women, we will be able to impact more women and it will get easier as we progress.
Damilola Olokesusi
Social Impact
The Shuttlers solution is contributing to a decline in traffic in cities, as professionals can now share comfortable air-conditioned bus rides with other fellows. This is not only reducing their daily commuting stress, but it also allows passengers to interact with peers, and reduces traffic congestion and carbon emissions due to lesser private cars on highways: 1 Shuttlers bus can remove up to 14 -29 cars from the road.
In 2020, Damilola launched an initiative called She moves Shuttles, an all-female shuttle service. The project, supported by the Ford Motors Company in partnership with Global Water Challenge (GWC), has already impacted more than 600 female professionals by making their commuting easier and providing them the opportunity to use their commuting time as a learning and development time.
Damilola is also involved in different organizations such as Impact Hub and Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance to support other women entrepreneurs in Nigeria and help them grow.
Recognition and Awards
Damilola was recently selected as one of the Most Influential Women in Mobility 2022 by Vulog. She is poised to continue to lead innovation in the technology and transportation sectors and other sectors in Nigeria and around the world. Damilola is a Forbes30Under30 (2019) Recipient for Technology, and she went on to be selected by the UK government for a technology exchange in 2020. She has garnered accolades such as The Digital & Tech Award at the Women in Africa Contest in Morocco in 2017, the Award for the Best Idea at the Aso Villa Demo Day, where she had the opportunity of meeting the Vice President of Nigeria and Mark Zuckerberg. She has also won grants from institutions like Airtel’s Sahara, GEM-WorldBank, and Ford Motors Company.