Damilola Olokesusi is a Nigerian entrepreneur, technology leader and chemical engineer best known as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Shuttlers. Her company uses technology to provide scheduled shared transportation for professionals and organisations, particularly in major Nigerian cities.
Her journey from chemical engineering to technology entrepreneurship began with a simple observation. Lagos commuters faced daily problems with unreliable, uncomfortable and sometimes unsafe public transportation. She eventually turned that problem into a business that connects commuters with scheduled shuttle services.
Who Is Damilola Olokesusi?
Damilola Olokesusi is a Nigerian entrepreneur and mobility technology executive. She co-founded Shuttlers, a transportation technology company that allows commuters to book seats on scheduled routes through a digital platform.
Her work focuses on improving urban mobility through shared transportation. Rather than operating like a conventional ride-hailing service, Shuttlers uses fixed routes and scheduled trips to serve individual commuters and corporate clients.
Her career has also included engineering, investment management, entrepreneurship and leadership roles in technology and innovation communities.
Damilola Olokesusi Age and Early Life
Damilola Olokesusi was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and grew up in Ibadan, Oyo State. Her exact date of birth is not reliably documented in public records, so an exact age should not be stated as fact.
She grew up in a family where both of her parents worked with the former National Electric Power Authority, now known as the Power Holding Company of Nigeria. Her early environment followed a more conventional professional path, but her university years exposed her to entrepreneurship and technology.
She has described herself as someone who enjoyed mathematics and chemistry from an early age. Those interests influenced her decision to study chemical engineering.
Education
Olokesusi studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Lagos.
Her university experience played an important role in shaping her approach to problem-solving. During a prolonged university strike in 2009, she attended seminars and programmes that introduced her to technology entrepreneurship.
That period changed her understanding of career possibilities. Instead of seeing engineering only as a route into the oil and gas industry, she began considering how technology could be used to solve everyday problems.
She has also participated in entrepreneurship and leadership programmes, including the Harambeans entrepreneurial network and business education programmes.
Early Career
After university, Olokesusi gained professional experience through engineering and investment-related roles.
She worked as a trainee engineer at Marine Professionals Limited and previously completed an engineering internship at Pan Ocean Oil Corporation. She also gained experience at Asset and Resource Management, where she worked as a management intern.
These experiences exposed her to different aspects of engineering, business and corporate operations.
She also experimented with entrepreneurship before Shuttlers. One of her early projects involved a fashion technology idea that did not succeed commercially. Rather than abandoning entrepreneurship, she treated the experience as a lesson in developing sustainable business models.
How Shuttlers Started
The idea for Shuttlers developed from Olokesusi’s personal experience with transportation in Lagos.
During her working and internship years, she frequently used commercial buses and experienced the difficulty of moving around the city. She also observed that some companies provided staff buses for employees.
This raised a question for her: why could smaller companies and individual professionals not have access to a similar scheduled transportation service?
The idea became more urgent after one of her sisters experienced a dangerous incident involving a commercial vehicle. The incident highlighted the security concerns that commuters, particularly women, could face while using public transportation.
Olokesusi and her co-founders decided to develop a safer and more organised alternative.
Founding Shuttlers
Shuttlers was founded in 2015 by Olokesusi, Damilola Quadri and Busola Majekodunmi. The company officially launched in October 2016.
The business initially operated without a dedicated mobile application. Customers used platforms such as WhatsApp, email and Slack to book rides and receive information about routes and schedules.
One of the company’s early corporate customers was Andela. This helped demonstrate that there was demand for scheduled transportation designed around the needs of professionals.
In 2019, Shuttlers introduced its dedicated mobile application. The platform allowed passengers to book seats, subscribe to routes and track their shuttles.
What Shuttlers Does
Shuttlers provides scheduled shared transportation rather than on-demand rides. Customers select available routes and book seats in advance.
The model serves both individuals and organisations. Companies can use the service as a staff transportation solution, while individual commuters can subscribe to routes that match their daily journeys.
The approach is designed to make commuting more predictable. Passengers know their routes and schedules before travelling, while shared transportation can reduce the number of individual vehicles needed for the same number of commuters.
She Moves Shuttles
In 2020, Olokesusi partnered with Ford Motor Company and the Global Water Challenge to launch She Moves Shuttles.
The initiative provided an all-female transportation service designed around women’s mobility and safety concerns.
The project demonstrated how the Shuttlers model could be adapted for specific groups rather than treating all commuters as having identical transportation needs.
Career Recognition
Olokesusi has received recognition for her contribution to technology, entrepreneurship and mobility.
In 2016, Shuttlers was selected for the She Leads Africa Accelerator Programme. The company also won the transportation category at the ASO Villa Demo Day that year.
She received a digital and technology award at the Women in Africa Contest in Morocco in 2017.
In 2019, she was named to Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 list in the technology category.
She was also recognised by the Project Management Institute as one of its Future 50 honourees in 2022 for her work transforming transportation through shared mobility.
Global Shapers and Leadership
Olokesusi has been involved with the Global Shapers Community, an initiative associated with the World Economic Forum. She served as Vice Curator of the Lagos hub and led work related to entrepreneurship and innovation.
Her involvement in the community complemented her business activities by giving her a platform to engage with young entrepreneurs and social innovators.
She has also participated in the Harambeans entrepreneurial network, which brings together African entrepreneurs working on businesses and social-impact initiatives.
Family
Olokesusi comes from a family with a professional background in the power sector. She has siblings, and one of her sisters’ experience with unsafe public transportation became one of the factors that strengthened her motivation to build Shuttlers.
She generally keeps her private family life away from the centre of her public profile. Her professional story remains primarily connected to entrepreneurship, technology and mobility.
Why Damilola Olokesusi Is Important
Olokesusi’s career illustrates how technical education can provide a foundation for entrepreneurship outside the traditional career path associated with a degree.
Her chemical engineering background influenced the way she approaches efficiency and problem-solving, while her experience as a commuter helped her identify a practical transportation challenge.
Through Shuttlers, she transformed that observation into a technology-enabled business serving commuters and organisations. Her work has also placed Nigerian mobility innovation within wider conversations about urban transportation, technology and sustainability.
Conclusion
Damilola Olokesusi has built a notable Nigerian technology and entrepreneurship career around solving transportation problems. Her journey from chemical engineering and early professional roles to founding Shuttlers demonstrates how everyday challenges can become opportunities for innovation.
Through scheduled shared transportation, she has sought to make professional commuting more organised, accessible and efficient. Her recognition in African technology and global innovation circles has further established her as an important figure in Nigeria’s growing mobility technology sector.