Aruwa Capital Exceeds Target, Achieves Final Close On Fund 1

A foremost equity and investment company in Nigeria, Aruwa Capital Management, has disclosed that its first institutional fund was oversubscribed and exceeded its expected target of $20 million.

Aruwa Capital is a female-founded equity  investment fund.

The fund’s first institutional and anchor investor is Visa Foundation, followed by other investors such as Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund, Nyala Venture, backed by Financial Sector Deepening Africa Investments and leading family businesses from Africa, Europe and the United States.

Aruwa Capital Management was founded in 2019 by Adesuwa Okunbo-Rhodes who has leveraged more than a decade of investment banking and private equity experience from leading global organisations such as J.P. Morgan.

In a statement by the managing partner, Aruwa Capital, Okunbo-Rhodes pointed out that the investment gap faced by women in Africa which comprised 40 per cent of all small and medium enterprises regrettably received only one per cent of start-up capital which she attributed to the lack of female capital allocators in the region.

“The fund will invest $500,000 to $2.5 million in women-focused small and growing businesses in Nigeria and Ghana, targeting investments in critical sectors such as healthcare, fintech, renewable energy and essential consumer goods.

“Aruwa invests in innovative businesses, poised for scale, that provide essential goods and services to the rapidly expanding female economy and businesses that are founded or led by women or have gender diverse teams,” she said.

She added that the fund had made six investments, committing over 45 per cent of its capital into a diversified portfolio of rapidly growing companies stressing that it has established a reputation for rigorous investment selection and active hands-on support of management teams on the ground, to improve company operations and performance.

Head of investments at Visa Foundation, Najada Kumbuli, said: “Visa Foundation is pleased to be the first institutional investor in Aruwa Capital Management. We deeply believe that in order to address the financing gap that women-led small businesses face, we need to empower and invest in more women-led investment funds like Aruwa.