Damilola Odufuwa
Damilola Odufuwa is a tech entrepreneur, communications executive and women’s right activist with experience growing tech and digital media startups. She is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Backdrop, a travel app and social media network that helps people find and share beautiful places with ease, essentially making location discovery and trip planning easier for millennials and Gen Zs.
An avid traveller, Damilola found the process of planning trips and discovering beautiful places to visit unnecessarily difficult. She often needed to use multiple travel blogs and social media apps, and also ask people who had visited these countries for ideas on where to visit. This led to her starting up Backdrop.
Damilola’s leadership and vision have been instrumental to the success of Backdrop which has grown exponentially with post-pandemic travel becoming more complex.
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With Backdrop hashtags, users can find specific places, and the “Backdrop Near Me” feature allows them to discover other places they can visit close to their current Backdrop location.
Damilola completed a Bachelor’s degree in Financial Economics from the University of Kent and a master’s degree in International Finance and Economic Development from the same university.
Before Backdrop, Damilola served as the Campaign Assistant for MTV Shuga, before freelancing as a producer for National Geographic. She also held the position of Editor in Chief at ZUMI, then she served as a social producer for CNN Africa, and as Chief Editor for both Konbini and Zikoko.
In addition to her work with Backdrop, Damilola is also an active social activist and advocate for women’s rights and social justice causes in Nigeria. She co-founded The Feminist Coalition, a Nigerian organization dedicated to advancing women’s rights, safety, economic empowerment, and political participation. Additionally, they organize food drive programs to assist low-income women and their families.
Damilola is a role model for young people who want to make a difference in their communities through entrepreneurship and social impact.