Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes is the Founder and Managing Partner of Aruwa Capital Management, one of the few women owned and led private equity funds in Africa investing into untapped investment opportunities in West Africa in the small to lower mid-market. Adesuwa launched Aruwa Capital Management with her own money in Lagos in July 2019, and left the comforts of a six figure salary, in order to make an impact in society with her skills and track record and change the narrative for women and small businesses across Africa.
Adesuwa is an entrepreneur, CEO, mother, investor and women’s empowerment advocate. She is one of the youngest female private equity fund managers in Africa at 31 years old. Adesuwa is a big believer that investing in women is not only the moral thing to do given the role women play in society and the multiplier it can have in terms of poverty alleviation for families but also because investing in women and for women has been proven to deliver outsized and superior returns. Adesuwa is focused on using Aruwa Capital Management’s investments as a case study to make the business case to invest in women as fund managers, entrepreneurs, consumers and stakeholders in society.
Aruwa Capital Management is a Lagos based, early-stage growth equity and gender lens $20 million fund that invests between $500,000 and $2.0 million in equity and equity linked instruments into established and rapidly growing businesses in Nigeria and Ghana that are currently overlooked by other private equity funds. Aruwa invests in businesses that either provides goods or services that cater to the untapped $15 trillion female economy or businesses that are founded or led by women or employ women in their workforce or value chain due to the increased profitability of gender diverse teams.
Due to its focus on the early-stage growth segment that is free of and its focus on showcasing the increased returns that can be generated when investing in women as consumers and entrepreneurs, Aruwa can successfully combine outsized financial returns with long lasting positive socio-economic development and women empowerment outcomes in the countries it invests in. Aruwa invests across rapidly growing and essential sectors such as healthcare, financial services, renewable energy consumer goods, agri-processing, and technology.