A PIONEERING AND INNOVATIVE WOMEN OWNED AND LED GROWTH EQUITY FUND CLOSING GENDER GAPS IN AFRICA
Changing the face of investing and entrepreneurship in Africa
About Us
Aruwa Capital Management is Lagos based, female founded and led, growth equity, impact investment company. As one of the few women owned investment houses on the entire African continent, the team have identified an untapped investment opportunity, investing in rapidly growing companies that either provide essential goods and services to the rapidly growing female economy or businesses that are founded or co-founded by women or have gender diverse teams.
Aruwa Capital Management was founded based on the conviction that the gender imbalance amongst capital allocators provides an untapped opportunity for women as capital allocators to invest in untapped segments of the economy with a natural competitive advantage.
With less than 10 private equity funds owned or led by a woman in the entire continent of Africa, Aruwa Capital Management aims to unlock untapped investment opportunities that have historically overlooked due to the fact that women have not been in investment decision making roles.
The team based in Lagos is led by the Founder, Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes and combines international best practice skill sets from global institutions with deep local networks, operational know how and on the ground presence to unlock untapped investment opportunities. The team is made up of investment professionals and operators that understand how to support and improve businesses in our markets.
Team
Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes
Founder & Managing Partner
Teslim Ogundiran
Investment Associate
Chidinma Okoli
Investment Analyst
Oyedade Shokunbi
Investment Associate and Portfolio Manager
Babatunde Usman
Investment Analyst and Portfolio Manager
Investment Committee
The Investment Committee is composed of a high calibre and diverse group of investors and operators with significant investing and operating experience on the African continent.
Dotun Sulaiman
Hannah Subayi
Ramatoulaye Adama Diallo
Adesola Sotande-Peters
The Opportunity
Our Approach
We focus on investing in established, rapidly growing companies in the small to lower mid-market that operate in high-growth industries. These companies are too big for traditional venture capital but are too small for larger private equity funds. We invest in companies that have strong management teams and meet the following criteria:
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Provides essential goods and services that cater to women
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Founded or co-founded by a woman, has women within its workforce, senior management team or value chain
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A positive attitude towards and active support of a diverse team
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An annual turnover of at least $300-500k
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Proven management team with a history of delivering the underlying business plan
Portfolio
Wemy Industries
Sector: Healthcare
An indigenous manufacturer of daily disposable personal hygiene goods
https://wemydrbrowns.com/
Lifestores Pharmacy
Sector: Healthcare
Pharmacy retail chain and technology enabled pharmacy marketplace
http://lifestorespharmacy.com/
http://lifestorespharmacy.com/
Pngme
Sector: Financial Technology
Mission critical data infrastructure and machine learning models powering the next generation of financial services, ensuring an inclusive credit system
Website: https://pngme.com
Agroeknor International
Sector: Consumer Goods and Wellness
Leading exporter of superfoods and consumer wellness brand
https://agroeknor.com
Crowdforce
Sector: Financial Technology
Sector: Financial Technology
A leading financial services distribution network
Website: https://crowdforce.io/
Koolboks
Sector: Cleantech / Renewable Energy
A technology-enabled renewable energy refrigeration company for off-grid areas
https://www.koolboks.com/
https://www.koolboks.com/
News
ARUWA and WEMY $25,000 Female Distributor Grant
As part of our continuous support to Wemy in its next phase of growth, we were happy to present a $25,000 grant to her new and existing female distributors, to promote women’s economic empowerment and further drive gender diversity in their value chain.
Aruwa Capital invests in Koolboks
We are pleased to announce our investment into Koolboks, a technology-enabled renewable energy refrigeration company that provides cost-effective cooling to business owners, particularly women, in off-grid areas in Nigeria and globally. This investment aligns with so many of our values in terms of our gender lens, ESG and impact objectives. In line with Aruwa’s gender lens investing strategy, Koolboks is co-founded by a woman, has a 67% female representation in its management team and 73% of its B2C customer base are women.
Aruwa Capital invests in Crowdforce
Aruwa Capital is pleased to announce its investment into Crowdforce, a leading financial services distribution network in Nigeria facilitating delivery of banking services to last-mile customers in rural areas, serving the underserved and unbanked population in Nigeria. We see significant value in the Company’s product as it is solving a real problem by providing access to critical financial services in rural areas that have been overlooked by traditional financial institutions historically. The Company is actively deepening financial inclusion through its products and services, and has unique competitive advantages through its proprietary technology and extensive agent distribution network across the country.
Aruwa Capital Management recognised amongst global leaders achieving UN SDGs
Adesuwa is recognised as one of this year’s MB100, an award celebrating leaders combining profit and purpose to help achieve the United Nations Global Goals.
Other representatives from leading global organisations also received recognition. Firms such as Credit Suisse, Seedstars, Dangote Industries Limited, Google, IKEA amongst others.The award is led by Meaningful Business and sponsored by EY.
Aruwa Capital Management invests in Pngme
Aruwa Capital Management is pleased to announce its investment into Pngme that is powering the future of financial services in Africa. Pngme’s infrastructure has processed billions of data points from hundreds of financial institutions across sub-Saharan Africa and its application allows fintechs and other financial institutions collect alternative financial data at scale and unify it with other data sources to create a holistic picture of an individual's financial behaviour. Co founded by a woman, their technology and products ensure a healthy and inclusive credit system across the continent.
Aruwa portfolio company Wemy Industries interviewed by International Finance Corporation
CEO of Wemy talks to IFC about the strategic role local manufacturers can play in our markets that are still predominantly import led. In addition he gives a sneak peak to the Company’s backward integration strategy where Wemy will start locally manufacturing key raw materials that are shared across most of its SKUs.