Tunde Kehinde is a Nigerian entrepreneur and business executive best known as the co-founder and CEO of Lidya, a digital fintech lending platform that serves small and medium enterprises in Africa and Europe[1][2]. Born to entrepreneur parents who owned businesses, Kehinde witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by SMEs in developing economies, which inspired his later career focus on supporting small business growth[3]. He completed his undergraduate education at Howard University, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Finance with honors, before pursuing an MBA at Harvard Business School[4][5]. Prior to his entrepreneurial ventures, Kehinde gained valuable corporate experience as an investment banking professional with Wachovia Securities in North Carolina and New York City, and later as a business development executive with Diageo in London[6][7].
Kehinde's entrepreneurial journey began with his co-founding of Jumia Nigeria, which became Africa's first unicorn and was subsequently publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange[8][9]. He also co-founded Africa Courier Express (ACE), Nigeria's leading last-mile e-commerce delivery company that addressed critical logistics challenges in the African market[10][11]. His success with Jumia earned him recognition as "The Jeff Bezos of Africa" by the BBC and C2 Montreal, highlighting his role in pioneering e-commerce solutions across the continent[12]. These early ventures established Kehinde as a prominent figure in Africa's emerging tech ecosystem and demonstrated his ability to identify and address fundamental market gaps in developing economies.
In 2016, Kehinde co-founded Lidya with Ercin Eksin, developing an AI-powered digital lending platform that enables SMEs in fast-growing economies to access financing and build credit scores within 24 hours[13][14]. Lidya's innovative approach analyzes up to 100 data points per applicant to make rapid lending decisions, addressing the critical gap left by traditional commercial banks that typically don't serve smaller firms[15]. The platform launched with operations in Lagos, Warsaw, and Prague, with ambitious international expansion plans focused on European markets[16]. Since its launch in late 2016, Lidya has attracted significant interest with over 4,000 applications in its early years, and the company's mission is to create 100 million jobs worldwide by supporting small business growth[17][18]. Kehinde's work has been recognized by Harvard Business School, which developed a case study on Lidya's expansion from Nigeria to Eastern Europe, and he has been appointed to various leadership positions including the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders program[19][20].
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