Folabi Esan

Mr. Folabi Esan is a seasoned investor and entrepreneur whose career has spanned the fields of engineering and production, consulting, information technology, finance, and investing. During his career-formative years, Folabi worked with large corporations including Shell, Arthur Andersen, and Bain and Company. In 1998, he joined the German multinational SAP AG as their first employee in West Africa. In his roles as Managing Director for Nigeria and Regional Manager for West Africa, he led the company to profitability and established SAP Nigeria Limited as a full-service subsidiary of SAP AG.

In 2005, Folabi founded Techno-Diffusion Company Limited, a management consulting company. In 2008, he became a founding partner of Adlevo Capital Limited, a Mauritius-domiciled Private Equity firm that invests in technology-driven companies across sub-Saharan Africa. Adlevo’s notable portfolio companies include Interswitch, West Africa’s largest payments company; Paga, Nigeria’s largest mobile money company; and Intelligra, a company focused on increasing digital and financial inclusion by deepening the penetration of smartphones in Africa.

Folabi served on the board of the Nigerian German Business Association for almost 20 years. As a two-term (four-year) president, he was instrumental in transforming the Association into a Chamber of Commerce. He was a founding Board Member of the Private Equity and Venture Capital Association of Nigeria and a past President of the Stanford Alumni Association in Nigeria.

Folabi is a Chevening Scholar and holds Master’s degrees from both Stanford University and Birbeck College, University of London.