Sola Adeyinka is the brain behind Vale, a financial-services company he founded in 2019. Vale is said to have grown customer placements from N100 million in 2022 to more than N10 billion in 2026. Its customer base has exceeded 150,000, while cumulative transaction value is approaching N1 trillion and more than N100 billion has been disbursed in loans.
His entrepreneurial journey however began at Obafemi Awolowo University in 2004 when as an undergraduate studying Materials Science and Engineering when he opened the small shop while still at university and with limited formal business training, he learnt by building systems for inventory management, bookkeeping, customer engagement and marketing.
Three years later, the business had expanded to another location in Ibadan and employed four full-time workers. Adeyinka says it was generating more than N500,000 in monthly revenue.
From Materials Science to Finance
Adeyinka studied Materials Science and Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University between 2001 and 2007 before he added formal accounting training, studying Applied Accounting at Oxford Brookes University from 2007 to 2009. He later completed a Project Finance programme at London Business School in 2014..
His professional career began with a two-month internship at Nextzon Business Services in late 2008, where he worked as an analyst in business advisory, strategy and venturing.
In January 2009, he joined Accenture as an analyst, working on financial growth strategy, business-process redesign and financial modelling and Seven months later, he moved to KPMG, beginning a career in audit that would last more than four years.
At KPMG, Adeyinka worked as an Experienced Audit Associate from September 2009 to September 2011 before becoming a Senior Associate in October 2011. His work included statutory audits of oil and gas companies, agreed-upon-procedures reviews involving joint ventures, joint operating agreements and production-sharing contracts, as well as group reporting and interim reviews.
From KPMG to Oil & Gas
In December 2013, Adeyinka moved into the oil and gas industry, joining South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO) as a Senior Financial Planning Analyst.
There, his responsibilities included managing the group’s budget, monitoring actual performance against budgets, forecasting performance trends and supporting management decision-making. He also worked on financial and statutory reporting and developed performance-management scorecards and dashboards.
After leaving SAPETRO in 2016, Adeyinka briefly worked as a Consultant on internal controls at Salvic Petroleum Resources between November 2017 and August 2018.
By then, his professional experience had accumulated across consulting, audit, oil and gas finance, accounting, financial modelling and controls.
He was preparing, perhaps without knowing it, for another attempt at entrepreneurship.
Vale Inception and Growth
Sola Adeyinka established Coralstone Capital Limited, a principal investment and advisory firm with investments across financial services, technology, education, logistics and telecommunications in January 2019 before establishing Vale in July of that same year.
Vale was conceived around a simple proposition: help people do more with their money and the company was initially associated with FundBae, a savings and investment platform designed to help Nigerians pursue financial goals.
Vale is a Central Bank of Nigeria-licensed financial-services platform providing solutions to businesses and individuals. Its services now span savings, investments, lending, financial advisory and business banking.
According to the company’s August 2026 growth disclosure, customer placements rose from N100 million in 2022 to more than N10 billion, representing a 10,000% increase.
Transaction value rose from N15 billion in 2022 to N790 billion by July 2026, while lifetime transaction value was approaching N1 trillion.
Vale says more than 150,000 customers have passed through its ecosystem and that it has disbursed about N100 billion in loans.
The lending business has expanded into working-capital finance, asset financing and LPO financing, with businesses in sectors including supply chains, agribusiness, logistics, oil and gas and energy among those funded by the company.
The company has also expanded into business banking, seeking to make Vale relevant not only to individual savers and borrowers but to small and medium-sized businesses. That expansion is important because SMEs represent one of Nigeria’s largest pools of unmet financial demand.
Fintech That Chose Not to Chase VC
Vale says it achieved its N10 billion growth without venture-capital funding pointing towards something different from similar ventures.
Adeyinka described Vale as a bootstrapped business that survived in a market where many believed startups needed VC funding to scale, while some better-funded ventures subsequently failed.
The company presents its growth as driven primarily by customers, operating discipline and reinvestment rather than dependence on repeated external VC rounds pointing to the fact growth can be built around customers and cash generation rather than fundraising announcements.
From Saving Money to Banking Businesses
Vale started with a relatively focused consumer proposition around savings and investments and seeks to become a broader financial institution serving individuals and businesses across multiple financial needs.
Its current offering includes savings and investment products, credit and business banking, while its lending arm provides financing for businesses. Adeyinka notes Vale wants to serve 1 million businesses and individuals by 2030 and grow customer placements to N200 billion.
That target would require Vale to grow its customer base several times over while maintaining the trust and risk controls necessary for a financial institution holding and lending customer money.
Coralstone Capital
Adeyinka is Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Coralstone Capital, an investment advisory whose interests include financial services, technology, education, logistics and telecommunications.
This gives Adeyinka a dual perspective: he is simultaneously an operator building a financial-services company and an investor evaluating businesses and opportunities across industries.
That combination may become increasingly important as Vale expands.
Running a fintech requires decisions about credit risk, technology, regulation, capital and customer acquisition. Running an investment firm requires evaluating exactly the same variables from the other side of the table.
Philanthropy and the SIA Foundation
In January 2024, Sola Adeyinka and his wife, Dr Ibukun Adeyinka, launched the Sola & Ibukun Adeyinka Foundation (SIA Foundation), a foundation focused on expanding opportunities for African women, children and young people, with an emphasis on education, skills development, entrepreneurship and economic empowerment.
In 2026, its Startup Foundry opened applications for its third cohort, offering training, mentorship and the opportunity for selected founders to compete for grants of up to $10,000. The foundation said applications had increased from 196 in the previous cohort to 417.
The foundation has also supported education through scholarships, including awards to 15 students of Maryanne College in Lagos Island.
