African Business Stories
African Business Stories is the go-to podcast for insights into the women shaping Africa’s business landscape. Africa is one of the world’s most promising frontiers for growth and innovation—and women are at the heart of this transformation.
Hosted by Akaego Okoye, this podcast spotlights female entrepreneurs who are breaking barriers, scaling businesses, and driving economic development across the continent. Through bold conversations, we explore funding, scaling strategies, digital transformation, and industry innovations—equipping you with insights, practical tools, and inspiration to navigate your own entrepreneurial journey.
When women win, economies thrive. These stories amplify success, challenge narratives, and create a blueprint for the next generation of female leaders in Africa and beyond.
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African Business Stories
Adesuwa Okunbo Rohdes: Founder & CEO Aruwa Capital Management - From Vision to $60M AUM: How Gender-Lens Investing is Reshaping Africa
Imagine raising $60 million to back female entrepreneurs in Africa when less than 2% of venture capital flows to women across the continent. That's exactly what Adesuwa Okunbo Rohdes accomplished with Aruwa Capital Management, one of Africa's few female-led growth equity funds specializing in gender lens investing.
From boarding school in the UK at age 11 to investment banking at JP Morgan, Adesuwa's path took a pivotal turn when she identified a crucial gap in the market: the severe underfunding of businesses led by or serving women across Africa. In 2019, pregnant with her first child, she took a leap that many called crazy – leaving the security of traditional finance to launch her own fund focused on backing women.
The timing couldn't have been more challenging. After securing their first investment, COVID hit, forcing a complete strategy pivot. "We had to tweak our fund structure, reduce our minimum ticket size, and prove ourselves over and over," she reveals. Through persistence and creativity, Aruwa mobilized capital from non-traditional sources, primarily women investors willing to trust a first-time fund manager over Zoom during a global pandemic.
Today, Aruwa's portfolio spans 13 companies across health, essential consumer goods, financial inclusion, and renewable energy – all either female-founded, female-led, or significantly benefiting women in their value chain. One standout success, Koolboks, provides solar-powered refrigeration for market women in off-grid areas. Since Aruwa's investment as their first institutional backer, they've grown revenue five-fold and expanded from Nigeria to 25 countries worldwide.
Beyond financial returns that exceed global benchmarks, Adesuwa's vision extends to transforming Africa's investment landscape. She advocates powerfully for mobilizing African institutional capital to fund African fund managers, arguing that Western investment models often fail to address the continent's unique realities. "Until we have more African pools of capital driving this discussion, there is no skin in the game to go beyond just ticking boxes," she explains.
Listen now to discover how persistence, purpose, and a deep commitment to gender equity can transform not just businesses, but entire economic systems. As Adesuwa puts it: "We don't need seats at the table. We need to create our own tables."
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With more female entrepreneurs than any other region in the world. Women are at the heart of Africa's transformation. Welcome to African Business Stories, the show that amplifies the voices of female entrepreneurs shaping Africa's business landscape. I'm your host, ekego Koye. Here we explore bold ideas, strategies for scaling and the realities of building businesses that drive economic development. These stories will provide insights into Africa's business landscape, practical tools for growth and the inspiration to navigate your own entrepreneurial journey. Be sure to subscribe, rate and share. Neuro journey. Be sure to subscribe, rate and share On the show.
Speaker 1:Today I chat with Adeswa Okumbo-Rhodes, founder and CEO of Arua Capital Management, one of Africa's few female-led growth, equity and gender lens funds. With over 15 years of experience in investment, banking and private equity, including at JP Morgan, adeswa has raised over $60 million to back businesses that are female-led or provide critical services for women. We talk about her journey from Nigeria to the UK, her transition from banking to entrepreneurship, the challenges of funding as a first-time female fund manager, and why investing in women is both impactful and commercially viable. It's a conversation about grit, strategy and the future of private capital in Africa. Let's get into it, hi Adeswa. Welcome to African Business Stories. Thank you for having me. Thank you, I'm so glad that we can finally get to have this conversation. I feel like I've been chasing you for four years now.
Speaker 2:Thank you for your patience. Yeah, thank you for having me. It's been a bit busy.
Speaker 1:I know. I know, and I'm actually grateful we didn't get to do this interview in 2020, because your story has become richer and so there's a lot more to cover. I guess this is the right time to have this conversation. Yes, everything happens at the right time, exactly. I believe that strongly. So, just starting at the very beginning, where I normally like to start, I know that you were born in Nigeria and you moved to the UK when you were about 11, and I wonder what that transition was like for you as a preteen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it was really difficult actually at the beginning Because I made two transitions. I transitioned from day to boarding school.
Speaker 2:But, I also transitioned from Lagos, nigeria, to a small town called Ramsgate in Kent. So it was quite two different transitions being away from my family to begin with, but then just being away from home and being away from Nigeria. So it was challenging in the beginning. I'm grateful that I had siblings, you know, although they were in senior school and I was in middle school, so we were kind of sick, but it was, you know, have them around around which kind of gave some sense of reassurance that I really really couldn't hack it and missed home. I could run to senior school and see my brother and sister, which was nice.
Speaker 2:But I think those were really formative years being away from home, being away from security blanket of, uh, mommy and daddy, you're forced to be independent. Uh, you're forced to be disciplined, you're forced to do your homework during prep time. No one's coming to tell you to do it. I think it instilled a level of independence that I'm very grateful for and it instilled, maybe I would say, some maturity as well, because I was put a year forward, I was the youngest in my class and being being able to be surrounded with older people, I think it brought that maturity early as well, and I was always reaching for more and reaching for more than people that were my age. So I think those are very kind of formative years and I was very proud that I remember crying in my first six months when I got there I want to go back home to Lagos. And then at the end of sixth form I was the first black female head of school in the company, in the sorry in the school's 100 year history.
Speaker 2:So it just shows that there was a journey of growth, the journey of maturity, and I wouldn't trade it for anything looking back on it now, and I even want my children to go to boarding school because I think it teaches you a lot of formative lessons for your future life.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree with that. And were there any early influences that shaped your interest in finance?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I would say that I remember when I was doing my research on markets and doing my research on the economy. So I've been someone that's been very interested about how money works and how money plays a role in our kind of day-to-day global market. Because my name is Adesua, it actually means center of wealth, so I think when my mom named me, it was really proclaimed from God that I would manage money.
Speaker 1:Wow, I like that.
Speaker 2:But I was always interested in how money worked from a very young age. I remember in school, when I was here in Nigeria, I used to sell lyrics Really Make money. Yeah, so I would go to school and I'll print out all the latest songs and people used to buy lyrics wow I was thinking back on that the other day and I was like, wow, I've always had this entrepreneurship bone in my body.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I think it was just that fascination with being able to make money, being able to create wealth and seeing how you could do that at scale. So that's what. That's why I wanted to study economics.
Speaker 2:That's why I got a very keen interest for investment banking, because I remember doing it in sixth form, going to a Goldman Sachs career day and there was this amazing Indian woman that stood in front of us. That was so smart, impactively dressed, was so eloquent, so coherent, and she was talking about what she did and I was like, wow, imagine if you can have women and people of color at these type of positions. It's something that I hadn't seen before and obviously Goldman were one of the top investment banks at that time. So that kind of piqued my interest and made me fascinated about investment banking and wanting to do more investment banking and wanting to do more. And that's what led me to do economics and what led me to have interest for an internship at Lehman Brothers in my first year of university and then, obviously, get the internship with JP Morgan in my final year of university. Yeah, I would say that interest in money and interest in how finance makes the world go around is something that pushed me to economics and, ultimately, investment banking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought it was interesting that you were doing an internship in your first year. Normally, first year of uni, people are just having fun and settling in, but you were already so focused and you had an internship. How did that come?
Speaker 2:about it was it was not done right. Internships are typically done in your second or your third year, correct, like, but I did. I went to a spring week at lehman brothers and I managed to get the information of the hr lady and I just didn't let her rest.
Speaker 2:I didn't let her rest, I sent her my CV it was persistent, I would update her and I was like, really love to do an internship and please interview me and let people interview me and just see. And I think she just admired that determination and admired that, that persistence that she invited me for interview and the people that interviewed me wanted me on their team. So so yeah, I think my career has always been like that. It's just been the favor of God opening doors, and I think it's also that my character.
Speaker 2:I just don't take no for an answer so I think people that are in senior positions typically resonate with that and they like the persistence and they like the grit and the resilience. And then you know, god does the rest that's fantastic.
Speaker 1:So you went on to to do that internship, you did another one at jp morgan and then you took a break. You took a gap year. So talk us quickly through that gap year, then we will. We'll jump into your move back to the continent yeah.
Speaker 2:So in that gap year I did the. I did my JP Morgan internship in my third year and I got the full-time offer, thank god. And then I said to my dad I've got in the full-time offer in my dream job. Why am I going to go do a master's? Because I had a place at Cranfield to go and do finance and management. And I was like I'm not going to do this master's, I already have the dream job. I'd rather explore other interests in this year out. And my dad was like what are you talking about? Go and do your master's.
Speaker 2:I was like, seriously, I'm not doing this master's. I value work experience over theory. So in that year out, what I did was I worked in a private equity firm called TLG Capital, and that's really where I started to really understand what impact investing on the continent really meant. Because we did a deal in Uganda a local manufacturer of antiretroviral and antimalaria drugs and it was a very successful investment for us, and I wasn't an entrepreneur back then. So I put a little bit of money of my personal money in as well and made a very attractive return. But at the same time, we saw people's lives being improved by genuine access to genuine medicines for malaria, for HIV. So it was the first time that I saw that in the Africanan continent you can invest and make money whilst also improving people's lives at the same time right so when I saw that, I was like, oh wow, this is interesting.
Speaker 2:I'd like to do this back home in nigeria, but at the time I didn't know how. I just thought, you know, this is something that will happen later in the future. So so in that year out I did that. I also spent some time in Spain learning Spanish, because I'd done Spanish at school and it's a language that I always loved. So I spent some time in Spain learning Spanish and then, after that year was done, I started full time at JP Morgan in M&A in the in the London. So yeah, I'm very grateful that my father eventually allowed me to take that year out, because it was really the birth of what would become later my love for the continent and investing in the continent.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful. So how many years were you at JP Morgan?
Speaker 2:So I was there for about four years just under four years. I started in the M&A team and then I moved to the leverage finance team and I had the privilege of being in different sector teams as well. So I was in the industrials team, I was in the consumer health care and retail team and then the leverage finance team, where I was also able to work on transactions in emerging markets, including Nigeria. So I I got a very, really well-rounded experience at JP Morgan, which I'm very grateful for.
Speaker 1:And then came this opportunity with Syntaxis Capital to move to the continent. Yes, yeah, so tell us a bit about that. This was not investment banking.
Speaker 2:No, this was not investment banking. So they are. They were a private equity fund, private equity and credit fund. They're based in Eastern Europe, based in Central and Eastern Europe, and they had seen a lot of the trends that we were seeing in Africa 15 years earlier in Central and Eastern Europe. So they're already successfully merging market investors. So they had hunted me to help them set up their Africa business. So I did that.
Speaker 2:For about five years, we were on the road for a fund and it was during that five years that I really started to see the gaps in the market in terms of funding for women, in terms of funding for SMEs. During that time, there was less than 10 funds in the whole of Africa that were female founded and female managed. There was less than 2% of capital going to female entrepreneurs and at the time, there was about an 80 billion funding gap for SMEs in Nigeria and in Ghana. So when I saw those disparities, that's really what started to birth the hunger for doing something of my own where we would specifically focus on plugging the gaps for women, because I was struggling to fundraise as the face of this African fund, but I saw numerous funds around me that were male led getting capital and raising capital and scaling their funds. So I thought, if we don't I always say that we don't need seats at the table, we need to create our own tables.
Speaker 2:I said with Arua we'll create our own table. We will mobilize capital from non-traditional sources, so not the DFIs and the traditional institutional investors that typically invest in funds. We will mobilize local HNI, local family office capital to do our first deals and then, as we have a robust portfolio that's validating the strategy, the institutional investors will come. And that's exactly what happened In 2019,. I spun out of Syntaxis Africa. I was 29 years old. I was five months pregnant.
Speaker 1:No way.
Speaker 2:A lot of people thought I was crazy. They were like you haven't raised the fund, just go back to jp morgan. But I felt a strong sense of purpose. I felt a strong sense of conviction in what, in the gaps that I had seen. So I took that kind of bold leap of faith on the road less travel to set up. I remember a capital in 2019, july 2019.
Speaker 2:We were able to mobilize some capital from friends and family to do our first investment in October 2019. And this was in a company called Wemi Industries, their local manufacturer of a range of hygiene goods, including sanitary pads for women. And then we thought, okay, we've arrived. I've arrived. Now that we've done our first deal, the money will pour in. And then hit. And then covid hit all those conversations we were having retreated and we had to start from scratch. So that's when we started to mobilize local capital, put people in spvs, reduce my minimum investment size, and the rest is history.
Speaker 2:I'm very grateful to a lot of women that invested in Arua during that time, that invested in parted ways with their capital over Zoom. So it was those investors that enabled us to do our first five investments and the thesis was we're going to showcase that by having more women allocating capital. There's natural trickle-down effects to women in your portfolio. There's natural trickle-down effects to women in your portfolio. There's natural trickle-down effects to gender diversity in your portfolio, and this will enhance our returns. But not only that. It will also ensure that there is significant social impact because of the role that women play in our society, in Africa as well.
Speaker 1:But what were those initial conversations like? How did you see yourself tweaking your pitch at each?
Speaker 2:point. I had to tweak my pitch at several points because in COVID, people were very what's the word I'm looking for protective of their capital. The world was falling down. People didn't know what was going to happen. Our pitch was this is a way to diversify your investment portfolio. This is a way to diversify your investment portfolio. This is a way to generate social impact. Women are not getting enough capital. We need to come together to invest in our women.
Speaker 2:But a lot of people had got in their hands burned with private equity in the past. Right, because unfortunately, private equity in Africa historically has not really lived up to the return promises of the African rising narrative 15 years ago that everyone jumped on. So we had to tweak our fund structure. We had to tweak our fund economics. We had to really prove ourselves that we could identify these businesses, we could invest in them, we could return capital to give people comfort. We had to reduce our minimum ticket size.
Speaker 2:So I always say that if you're a first time fund manager and you have a fund ticket size of $500,000, good luck. So we had to make a lot of tweaks, but there were so many no's, so many no's, so many no's you don't even want to know the hustle and grind and grit that it took during COVID Multiple Zoom pitches pitching to angel investing clubs, pitching to women investing clubs, pitching to groups of friends to come together into SPVs. So yeah, it was a lot of. It was a lot of work and, yes, a lot of no's and a lot of rejection, but thank God we got there in the end rejection, but thank God we got there in the end.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. So you've managed to grow Arua Capital to I think your assets under management last time I read was $60 million, correct. What do you think are some of the key strategies that you use to increase and maintain investor confidence?
Speaker 2:Yes. So I think for us, we are just very intentional about being consistent with our strategy. From our inception, we set out to create a gender lens platform where we can showcase that if you invest in women as capital allocators, there's that natural trickle-down effect to women in our portfolio and with fund one, we did what we were going to. We did what we said we were going to do. Fund one we were able to mobilize capital from local investors and h and i's and family offices globally to begin with. We then got the attention of visa foundation, which anchored our first fund with a four million dollar investment. We then got MasterCard Foundation. We then got FSD Africa. So I think with Fund One, it was really about gaining the trust of investors to invest in you as a person.
Speaker 2:And now with Fund Two, where we've actually doubled and hopefully will triple our size of Fund One, the reason that we've been successful in scaling is because we were consistent in our strategy. We said we were going to do something and that's what we did 17% of our portfolio of Fund One. We said that we were going to invest for commercial returns and social impact. Our Fund One returns are above global benchmarks when you compare it to other 2019 vintages across the world. So I think that also has given our investors a lot of confidence. We said we're going to invest and create jobs. Our fund one is supporting 175,000 directed indirect jobs indirect jobs. So these are just some highlights that I've pulled out. That has given people that are now looking at Fund 2, that are moving away from me as a person alone but now looking at the results to see.
Speaker 2:Okay, what has Fund 1 done? Have you validated the investment strategy? Have you been consistent with your investment strategy? So I think those are some of the things that have helped us scale from 20 to now 60 and hopefully to even more when we reach a final close of our second fund.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic in female-led businesses and also female-focused, because I know that your first investment, Waymi, it's not female-led, but they make hygiene products which serve women, which I think is a great way of framing the gender lens financing. So what are some key criterias you look at in the businesses you invest in?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So for us, we want to invest in de-risked business models. So the majority of our fund will be investing in businesses that have proven their business model. They've been operating for at least two years and they have a minimum of at least $500,000 of revenue things that we look at. We also want businesses with strong profit margins and EBITDA margins. We want businesses that have showcased kind of strong historical growth as well.
Speaker 2:And then, for our gender lens criteria, we want businesses that are either female founded, female led, or could be male founded or male led, but a portion, a significant portion, of their value chain is benefiting women, and that could be, for example, we have a business in our portfolio called Omni Retail, where they are servicing over 140,000 retailers where 75% of them are women.
Speaker 2:That's the type of, that's the type of value chain impact that we want to see, if it's not typically a female-founded or a female-led business. Or it could be like WEMI that you mentioned, where they're providing goods and services that improve women's lives. So that's really the criteria. And then when you add our sector focus as well, where we want to invest in necessities, so we don't want to invest in nice-to-haves, we want to invest in necessities, so we don't want to invest in nice-to-haves. We want to invest in health. We're investing in essential consumer goods like food. We're investing in financial inclusion and fintech. We're investing in access to power through renewable energy. So these are really the key things that we're looking for as we screen investment opportunities.
Speaker 1:How many companies do you have in your portfolio today?
Speaker 2:So, across both Fund 1 and Fund 2, we have 13 companies.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure there are many success stories, but is there one that is like a standout? Not that I'm making you pick, but is there one that's like a standout Just showing the impact? Or, from the impact point of view, what's your investment, how you've seen your investment grow, this particular business, and where they are today compared to when you first invested in them? Just one example would just give color to the conversation we're having.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there are many examples, because we did some analysis on our portfolio the other day and we saw that across our fund one, the businesses that we've invested in have grown by 22 times compared to when we first invested. So the capital we provide is very transformative to these businesses. But if I had to pick I don't like to pick because it's like picking your children, I know. But if I had to pick, I'll probably give the example of a cool box. So, cool box, they provide solar-enabled refrigeration for market women, predominantly in off-grid areas. So if you don't have access to power, you don't have access to electricity and you're selling cold drinks or frozen fish or frozen meat, you typically have to throw your meat or fish away. So with our product, they can have electricity and power for up to four days as long as they have access to the sun.
Speaker 2:So when we invested in this business, we were the first institutional equity investor in the business in 2021.
Speaker 2:Since then, they've grown revenues by more than five times. They've been able to provide electricity to over 3,000 micro SMEs and off-grid areas, where over 70% of those are women-owned, and we've been able to help them attract five times more funding than when we invested at significant uplift in terms of valuation to what we invested at, and now that company from just servicing Nigeria is now selling its product in 25 countries around the world Fantastic. So it just gives you an idea of the type of journey that the companies that we invest in go on through our capital capital where we're able to spot them early, provide them with the capital that they need and then we're able to get them to a stage where larger investors, larger strategic investors are able to scale them even further. So I'd say cool box is definitely one of the success stories of our fund. It it's a female founded business. The management team is over 50% women and over 70% of their customers are women as well, so it's really gender lens investing at its best.
Speaker 1:That is just incredible, because you know that I was my follow on question was going to be about expansion outside of their initial markets, but you've already covered that with this example. There's someone else I saw on your portfolio list, taylor. Yes, I interviewed her many years ago Well, I say many, about three years ago or so and it's so incredible. I caught up with her in September of last year and it's incredible to see how much she's grown and been able to attract funding. And I just wonder so, beyond financial capital, what other forms of support does Arua offer to your portfolio companies?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so actually it's great that you mentioned Taylor, because what we see with a lot of our investees, including Taylor, is that we can often help them strengthen their finance function because entrepreneurs, they've been very focused on growing the top line. They've been very focused on scaling, entering new markets, entering new, getting customers. But sometimes they forget some of the details in finance. So helping them implement an ERP, helping them implement an accounting system to help them track what is my profitability per SKU? What is my, how are my costs per unit moving on a weekly basis, getting into those very clear operational and financial KPIs can help you, when you have investment, make better informed decisions which, where should you be putting your working capital? Which SKU should you be expanding? So helping them with their finance function is something that we do. We typically help implement an ERP, we typically help bring in a CFO.
Speaker 2:Another thing that we do is we help with capital raising, so helping them secure that next round of capital. So over 50% of our businesses have gone on to raise larger pools of capital about 18 to 24 months after we invest. So we're able to leverage our relationships to ensure that they get subsequent rounds of capital to help them scale. And then another thing we help with is governance. We make sure that we're institutionalizing these businesses. We always sit on the boards of these businesses putting in the right corporate governance in place so that when larger investors come in, a lot of these structures are already in place and they don't have to start from scratch. So those are just some of the quick wins that we try and do, and because we're here in Lagos, we're close to our founders. Having that proximity to our founders means that we can really add value in a meaningful way.
Speaker 1:We see a lot of growth and activity in Nigeria and West Africa specifically. Have you had any experience broadly more Pan-African and how do you see the market for female-led businesses beyond West Africa?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so obviously Nigeria is the biggest market. It's one of the biggest recipients of venture capital and private equity activity, but also Kenya and South Africa and Egypt are also seeing a lot of venture capital and private equity activity. But if you look at the recent research that just came out, the picture is stark everywhere for female founders, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:So, the same way that in Kenya, the same way that in Egypt, the same way that in South Africa, female founders are just not getting enough capital. So the research was actually done on a Pan-African basis and it showed that less than 2% of capital is going to female startups across the continent. So, unfortunately, I don't think that there is any part of the continent that is immune from this ecosystem challenge of underfunding to female-led businesses, and that's why I always say that a vision for Arua is yes, we want to obviously conquer the Nigerian Ghana market to begin with, but over the long term, this is a Pan-African vision, because other parts of the continent are also suffering from this problem of underfunding to women. Parts of the continent are also suffering from this problem of underfunding to women. So over time, we hope to expand to other parts of the continent where we will have offices outside of Nigeria and we will also have other asset classes as well that will be addressing this issue.
Speaker 1:In addressing this issue. I've listened to a lot of the conversations you've had over the years and you've consistently spoken about having women as capital allocators in this process to help increase the flow of capital to women-led businesses. And I just wonder, diswa, in terms of other things that can be done beyond women being at the table or building their own tables, are there any other structural barriers that can be addressed or should be addressed to deal with this challenge?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think you've said it women being capital allocators is one, but then I think it's also just amplifying the success stories so that men can adopt gender lens investing strategies as well. It's not only for women to do. How can we amplify the success stories of the female-led businesses that have done really well, that have scaled, that have gone on to generate very attractive returns for their investors? Yes, one, we need women capital allocators, but we also need to be very intentional about amplifying the success stories of gender lens investing. I think that's something that we try to do at Arua, but we need more people to do that to showcase how has having a gender diverse board improved your profitability? How is having a majority female led management team? How is that driven revenue growth? How has that driven revenue growth? And let's equity and venture capital industry by western governments?
Speaker 2:So I think that until that shift happens, where more african pools of capital are funding African fund managers, there will not be enough capital flowing to women, both as capital allocators and both as entrepreneurs, because I feel very strongly that what has worked in the West for a private equity and venture capital model is not necessarily importable to our context. So the 10 plus 2 model is not working. So if you've looked at private equity in Africa, returns over the last decade, it will tell you that story. But because we do not have African pools of capital driving this discussion, there is no skin in the game to go over and above just ticking the boxes. So until we start to utilize the $25 billion of pension assets $25 billion, by the way- of assets that we have in Nigeria alone and start adding our capital to this conversation.
Speaker 2:I think that is a very systemic and structural barrier that is not moving our industry forward. So that's why, for us, we are really trying to showcase through our track record that we want our track record to speak for itself so that more local institutional investors, like the pension funds, like the insurance companies, the sovereign wealth funds, can be confident in starting to put some of their capital into African fund managers like us, because I think until we do that, we will not have enough aruas, we will not have enough pools of capital that are intentionally trying to solve African issues. So that's a bit of a controversial one, but I always try and slip that in as well.
Speaker 1:It's very welcome. This is actually probably the third or fourth time I've had a conversation around this particular issue the idea that only African capital can build Africa, and what does that actually look like? And so, yes, I'm glad that you threw that in there, and it should. Just, we need controversial conversations right now for us to move the dial.
Speaker 2:We've seen the world closing in right USAID tariffs, america first. So we should start thinking along those lines and start to try and be self-sufficient across all of our industries.
Speaker 1:I agree, and even recently, I wanted to get your take on the recent MasterCard withdrawal of their commitment to 54 Collective. And just in light of that, and what we're talking about, what do opportunities going forward look like with partnering with global investors?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I can't speak to that because I don't know all the details of the MasterCard duration, but I think it just points to we need a more diverse pool of capital and I think that goes to the fact that if we have more African-American institutional investors we're very glad to have Bank of Industry become one of our LPs in Fund2.
Speaker 2:If we have more investors that have boots on the ground here, understand the local nuances, understand the local context, we will be able to drive some of those discussions to suit what is the reality on the ground, because I think that a lot of Western organizations come with preconceived ideas of things that may have worked in the West but may not necessarily be importable to our reality. So by having more African institutional investors that live here, that understand the nuances that are here with us on the ground, then we'll start to build tailored solutions to fix the very nuanced problems that we face every day as a continent. So I think that's really it is we need to design differently. And to design differently you need desert skin in the game. Fortunately, a lot of the Western global organizations may not necessarily have the skin in the game because they're not living through the issues like us on a daily basis. So that's really what I have to say for that.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that. So I know that you're currently working towards the final close of FON2. And I was just wondering what excites you about the next phase for Arua Capital.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what excites me is we're obviously growing as a firm, we're growing the team, we are onboarding more companies into our ecosystem and really just being able to see the journey of some of our early investments as well and starting to exit some of those and starting to really not only validate our investment strategy on paper but also have some realized exits. I'm very excited for that phase as well, because I think the proof is in the pudding, as they say. So we're entering into a phase now where we're going to be exiting some of our portfolio from fund one. We're entering into a phase now where, with the new capital we have in fund two, we're going to be birthing a new generation of Arua portfolio companies. It's a very exciting time because we're ending one story and starting another one and expanding the team as we do it and also welcoming new types of investors into our ecosystem as well that have just joined us in the journey for fun too. So, yeah, it's a very exciting time for us at arua.
Speaker 2:It's a busy time but it's one that that has really shown just how far we've come from from covid, when it was a very difficult time, but to now see a fully developed ecosystem around us, different pool of investors, different types of companies, it's really. I'm really grateful to be part of the journey and to witness just the evolution of Arua. So, yeah, grateful to God for where he's brought us.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. This has been quite an insightful conversation and, like I said in the beginning, I'm happy that I waited. It's exciting to see the work that you're doing and the impact that you're having and also just demonstrating that these companies are commercially viable and excited to see what the next phase looks like. In wrapping up, I normally ask my guests to do two things to reflect and to give advice. Reflection is just an opportunity for you to tap yourself on the back and say I'm proud of me. So, just looking back at your career and what you've been building over the last six years, what would you say has been your proudest moment at this one?
Speaker 2:oh, gosh, what has been my proudest moment? I would say the final clays of fun. One was a very proud moment because it had taken me about nine years to get to that point. Right, haven't tried to raise my first fund with Syntaxis for five years and then three and a half years trying to get to a final close of Arua. Being able to get to a final close of Arua having spun out people thought I was crazy. They're like, oh, you're never going to raise a fund, just go back to JP Morgan and collect your salary.
Speaker 2:So that was a very proud moment, because it was just years of rejection, years of delay, years of setbacks. So that was a very proud moment for sure. Another proud moment, though, was when we got to a first close of Funtune. We launched Funtune in November 2023, just after I had my second son, and within seven months, we got to a first close of that was bigger than the size of Fon1. So that was another proud moment where it just showed that delay is not denial. Everything is meant to happen as it should. So, yeah, I'm just really grateful for the journey. I'm very proud of how far we've come as a team and and yeah, we have so much more to do, so my reflection is one of just immense gratitude and immense pride in in everything that we've achieved thank you so much for that, and if you could give one piece of advice to other women who are building businesses in Africa, what would that be?
Speaker 2:My advice would just be keep at it. Keep at it. Majority of success is persistence. Majority of success is being the last person standing. So there will be no's, there will be setbacks, there will be delays, but let your purpose, let your why fuel that determination, fuel that persistence, and it will happen. So I hope that my story can motivate, my story can inspire.
Speaker 2:It took close to nine years for me to get to a final close of Fund one and for me to successfully raise an institutional fund. So I think just that that that persistence is very necessary to succeed. So my advice is know your why. Always go back to it and try and do something that's more than you, because that's what will keep you going. If you're just building for money or building for status or building for recognition, you will quit in those difficult times. I think why I was able to go as long as I did was because I knew that if I was successful, that would really transform the landscape, and I'm very glad that more and more women now are starting to raise their own funds because they've seen that it's possible through what we've done. So that would be my advice is just to be persistent and make sure that your story is more than just you, so that it will give you the feel to keep on going.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Thank you so much for that. So where can people learn more about Arua Capital?
Speaker 2:Please go to our website, wwwaruacapitalcom, and you can also follow me on LinkedIn. Follow our company page on LinkedIn. We're very active on social media so, yes, you should be able to follow us on all the social media platforms.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, Adeswa. This has been a great conversation.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really glad that we had this conversation and it's amazing what you're doing, highlighting different business stories on the continent, so thank you for having me. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening. If you're not already subscribed, please do so on Apple, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a review so we know how we're doing. I'm Akego Okoye and you have been listening to African Business Stories.