Chris Folayan

Chris Folayan is a renowned and award-winning serial entrepreneur and founder, celebrated for his exceptional ability to start and scale multi-million-dollar global companies. With an illustrious career spanning decades, Folayan has demonstrated an extraordinary talent for investing, raising substantial capital, and building thriving businesses from the ground up. His entrepreneurial journey began at the tender age of seven when he started a profitable recycling business with friends, and since then, he has become an expert across various fields, founding and exiting 4 successful companies globally.

Born and raised in Africa, Folayan's relentless pursuit of knowledge led him to California, where he attended San Jose State University in the heart of Silicon Valley. Graduating with a degree in marketing, he discovered his passion for software development and embarked on a self-taught journey in mastering several programming and development languages. This impressive feat caught the attention of several Silicon Valley tech giants, Quantum. At the young age of 19, Folayan was recruited by Quantum, a cutting-edge hard drive manufacturing company.

During his time at Quantum, Folayan immersed himself in cutting-edge software engineering which led him to work with the due diligence group for mergers and acquisition. White at Quantum he worked on the development of numerous technical patents. Remarkably, he accomplished all of this while simultaneously pursuing a full-time college education. Folayan's expertise garnered widespread recognition, and companies across Silicon Valley eagerly sought his technical and market-oriented insights.

Eventually, he left Quantum and co-founded NTM, a pioneering digital music platform, revolutionizing the industry with the world's first indie music recording-to-digital rights and sales platform. Collaborating with artists from around the globe ensuring artists' music was safe while being encrypted and sold online.

Having successfully exited NTM, Chris founded his first of many ventures, OCFX Inc. As the CEO, he transformed OCFX into a renowned Silicon Valley brand, collaborating with prestigious companies such as SONY, Quantum, LSI Logic, Accenture, Adobe, Cisco, EMC, Merrill Lynch, Elo, CapitalOne, and many others.

Under Folayan's leadership, OCFX built a reputation for turning clients imaginative ideas into exceptional revenue-generating software products. Additionally, Folayan spearheaded the development of several spin-off companies within the OCFX ecosystem, offering valuable tools and solutions that companies could purchase and license.

As a serial entrepreneur motivated to start a new chapter, Chris launched Mallforafrica, what would end up being Africa's largest e-commerce platform. The award-winning platform started from his garage and experienced rapid growth, and Chris successfully secured multiple rounds of funding from global venture capital firms. Due to a global demand for the patented platform, Mallforafrica pivoted to a SaaS platform called Link Commerce and expanded its reach across 75 countries. Folayan licensed the software to fintech, shipping, and global partners, facilitating the sale of billions of products to millions of customers around the world each year.

In late 2021, Chris exited Mallforafrica, Link Commerce and intellectual property, and he embarked on yet another new venture sharing his knowledge of building multi-million dollar companies. The book "From Pitch To Close: What Founders and CEOs Need to Know and Do Before An Investor Meeting ." was the outcome of his new venture. This book provides invaluable information to founders with insights, showcasing Folayan's dedication to helping others build investable companies.

Today, Folayan is the Head of Global Growth for one of Africa’s largest Fintech companies Interswitch. Heading up Interswitch expansion into North America. Folayan is highly sought after as an executive advisor, mentor, investor, and board member. He has raised millions of dollars in venture capital funds globally and has cultivated a string of successful companies, earning him numerous prestigious awards and recognitions worldwide including being named in 2022 as one of the top 700 most influential Africans in the world.

An accomplished public speaker, Folayan has graced stages in over 25 countries, speaking at prestigious events such as the United Nations (UN), World Trade Organization (WTO), London Stock Exchange, and Global Business Forum (GEF) captivating large and intimate audiences with his insightful talks. He has also mentored countless students and startup founders at some of the world's most prestigious universities including Stanford, UC Berkeley, Harvard, and UCLA. Chris's remarkable achievements have has been featured in notable books like The Next Africa”, “The New Leadership Literacies” and has garnered media attention from renowned outlets such as The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, and TechCrunch, cementing his status as a thought leader in entrepreneurship and eCommerce.