In 2008, as a young doctor practicing in the United Kingdom, Dr. Ola Brown received news that would change the trajectory of her life: her sister had passed away in Nigeria after a medical emergency—one that might have been prevented with faster, more specialized care. It was a deeply personal loss, but for Ola, it sparked more than grief—it ignited purpose.
“I realized then that healthcare in Africa didn’t just need better doctors. It needed better infrastructure, better systems, and above all, better funding,” she recalls. “The plane to save her never arrived. I decided to build the plane.”
That decision led to the creation of Flying Doctors Nigeria, West Africa’s first air ambulance service, and it marked the beginning of one of the most unconventional and systemically significant careers in African entrepreneurship.
Today, Dr. Ola Brown is not only a pioneering medical entrepreneur but also one of Africa’s most respected investors—General Partner at Healthcap Africa, a venture capital firm deploying capital into healthtech, fintech, and infrastructure that underpins Africa’s development.
Her philosophy is clear: Africa doesn’t need saviours. It needs systems. And capital is the most effective tool to build them.
Dr. Ola Brown (née Orekunrin) qualified as a medical doctor in the UK at just 21, making her one of the youngest in the country. Early on, she stood out—not just for her clinical skill but for her systems thinking.
That insight drove her return to Nigeria, where she founded Flying Doctors Nigeria in 2010. Starting with one aircraft and a vision to bridge critical care gaps across the region, the company would go on to become Africa’s leading air ambulance service—evacuating patients across borders, supporting oil and gas operations, and laying groundwork for the continent’s nascent medical logistics industry.
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But even Flying Doctors had its ceiling. “I saw that we were solving one problem at a time, one patient at a time. But the system wasn’t improving fast enough,” she says. “To really fix healthcare in Africa, we had to fund its infrastructure. And not just in hospitals—but in data, logistics, payment rails, and financial inclusion.”
Her next move would be bold: from medicine to venture capital.
Following a successful exit from Flying Doctors’ hospital division, Dr. Brown founded Healthcap Africa, one of the continent’s earliest and most prominent women-led VC funds. The firm’s investment thesis is simple but ambitious: support early-stage companies solving Africa’s most foundational challenges—across health, fintech, logistics, and education—with scalable, tech-enabled models.
“Our goal isn’t just to fund the next unicorn,” she explains. “It’s to build the economic scaffolding that allows more Africans to live healthy, productive lives.”
Under her leadership, Healthcap has backed several transformative startups—including Paystack, the Nigerian fintech acquired by Stripe for $200 million in 2020.
Other Healthcap investments span electronic medical records, pharmacy tech, diagnostics, and AI-powered credit scoring—sectors that often fall between traditional VC mandates but are central to Africa’s development trajectory.
Dr. Brown’s approach to investing is deeply analytical. Alongside her medical background, she holds a Master’s in Finance and Economic Policy from the University of London and is currently pursuing a PhD focused on monetary policy and fintech. Her research informs not just her investment strategy but her broader thinking on how African nations can design more resilient economies.
Beyond the boardroom, Dr. Brown has become a leading voice in African policy circles—writing extensively on healthcare systems, public-private partnerships, and long-term capital markets. Her essays and white papers have been widely shared by governments, think tanks, and development finance institutions.
She’s also a fierce advocate for smarter development funding.
Her work has been recognized globally, but her focus remains local. Her leadership style is systems-oriented and data-driven—more interested in solving root problems than commanding attention.
For Dr. Ola Brown, success is not measured by valuations or exit multiples alone—but by how deeply her work changes the architecture of African life.
Image Credit: Young Progressives
