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
Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes
Founder & Managing Partner
Adesuwa is the Founder and Managing Partner of Aruwa Capital Management. Prior to founding Aruwa, she was the Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Syntaxis Capital Africa, a provider of growth capital to SMEs in Nigeria and across Sub Saharan Africa. Syntaxis Africa was part of Syntaxis Capital, a private equity fund active in other emerging markets with $300 million in AUM from global institutional investors. Prior to co-founding Syntaxis Africa in 2014, Adesuwa was in the Leveraged Finance and M&A teams at J.P. Morgan in London, where she was involved in $5.6 billion worth of transactions across emerging markets including Nigeria. Prior to J.P. Morgan, Adesuwa worked in Africa-focused PE fund, TLG Capital as an Investment Professional, involved in transactions across Anglophone Africa. She was named as an Agent of Impact in 2019 by Impact Alpha and named as one of the Top 35 Women Moving Africa Forward in 2020 for her commitment to gender equality in private equity and across the society through Aruwa Capital’s investments.
She currently sits on a number of boards in Nigeria across hospitality, healthcare and agriculture sectors. She started her career at Lehman Brothers and holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Bristol.
Ifeanyi Adah
Investment Professional
Ifeanyi Adah
Investment Professional
Chidinma Okoli
Investment Analyst
Chidinma Okoli
Investment Analyst
Ginika Obioha
Investment Analyst and Portfolio Manager
Ginika Obioha
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
Dotun Sulaiman
Hannah Subayi
Hannah Subayi
Hannah Subayi Kamuanga is an experienced investor in Africa currently acting as the Country Officer for the Republic Democratic of Congo (DRC) within Proparco – one of the largest DFIs in the world. She is also in charge of all equity transactions for Central Africa for Proparco. Prior to that, Hannah was a fund manager in a $1bn African fund of funds, South Suez Capital based in Cape Town and prior to that was an investment banker based in London.
Hannah is also an Investment Committee member at Launch Africa a pan-African early stage investment fund, a board member of ABAN, the African Business Angel Network, a Pan-African non-profit association and a director of Dazzle Angels the first South African female angel fund investing in women-led tech businesses. She also acts as a host, guest, speaker, judge on various start-up competitions including Harvard & Yale Business School.
Hannah is Congolese from the Democratic Republic of Congo and she graduated from HEC Paris business school with a Master II in management as well as Paris I – La Sorbonne Law University with a Master II in Business and International Law.
Ramatoulaye Adama Diallo
Ramatoulaye Adama Diallo
Adesola Sotande-Peters
Adesola Sotande-Peters
Adesola Sotande-Peters is a seasoned finance executive with over two decades of experience leading global organizations including the BBC UK, Diageo and Unilever, in multinational markets. She has been the recipient of multiple awards including the Great Place to Work Exceptional Female Leader Award 2019, CFO Awards – CFO of the Year (FMCG Category) 2017, and Unilever Finance Recognition Award 2016.
She is currently the first Nigerian and first female Vice President, Finance in the almost 100 years of Unilever Nigeria and Unilever Ghana. Adesola oversees the Controls and Governance agenda in Unilever Africa, providing strategic finance leadership. She is also the Executive Board Director of Unilever Nigeria; Non-Executive Board Director of Unilever Ghana, LONADEK Nigeria, SYGEN Pharmaceutical, LEAP Africa and sits on various other committees.
Adesola is passionate about lifelong professional education and has a Business Administration and Economics degree from the American International University, London, and an MBA for Finance Professionals from Manchester Business School. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Institute of Credit Administration (ICA). She is also an alumna of the IE Business School, Lagos Business School and INSEAD programmes.
Her passion for professional development extends into mentoring future leaders through her website www.hearadesolaout.com and social media (#Hearadesolaout). She was an Advisory Board Member of Women on Boards (WIMBOARD) and Women in Manufacturing, Africa (WIMAFRICA) and is the Chairperson at Women Empowered for Leadership Advancement and Development (WELEAD).
The Opportunity
Our Approach
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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
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
News
Aruwa Capital Management invests in Agroeknor International
Aruwa Capital Management invests in Pngme
Aruwa Capital Management recognised amongst global leaders achieving UN SDGs
Aruwa portfolio company Wemy Industries interviewed by International Finance Corporation
Aruwa Capital featured in the July edition of Inclusive Business Action Network (iBAN) publication CLUED-iN
The edition also featured contributions from other thought leaders in the gender lens investing field such as Suzanne Biegel, Jessica Espinoza, Caroline Ashley, Ajaita Shah, Jona Repishti and many more
