Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes

Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes is the Founder and CEO of Aruwa Capital Management.

Early life and education
Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes was born on 16th February 1990 in Lagos State, Nigeria. She attended Chrisland Primary School in Opebi, Lagos, and completed one year of secondary school at Atlantic Hall Lagos. She moved to England at 11 years old and attended the boarding school-St. Lawrence College, Ramsgate. She developed an interest in finance and investments at a young age.

She studied Economics at the University of Bristol, and started working at Lehman Brothers in 2008, before joining the M&A team at J.P. Morgan London in her final year of university.

Career
Okunbo Rhodes has over 15 years of investment banking and private equity experience from global institutions. She began her career in her first year at university at the global investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008. After she graduated from University she then moved to J.P. Morgan in the Mergers & Acquisition team prior to joining the Leveraged Finance team. Whilst at J.P. Morgan, she worked on c.$6 billion of transactions across emerging and developed markets.

Okunbo Rhodes has worked with numerous financial institutions and private equity firms such as TLG Capital Syntaxis Capital Africa in 2011 and Syntaxis Capital Africa in 2014. She was the Co- Founder & Managing Partner of Syntaxis Capital Africa, a company that provides growth capital to Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa. She finally set up her own investment firm, Aruwa Capital Management in 2019 at 29 years old, an impact and gender lens investment company.

Aruwa capital management
Aruwa Capital Management is a Lagos-based, female-founded and led, growth equity, impact and gender lens fund which was founded in 2019. It is one of the few private equity funds owned and managed by an African woman in the entire continent of Africa. Aruwa is focused on 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. It aims to close the gender gap in investment and empower women-led or women focused businesses and believes in the financial potential of women-owned businesses, citing studies showcasing their outperformance.

Aruwa Capital Management successfully raised an oversubscribed $20 million Fund I and has a portfolio of 10 companies across essential sectors of the economy: healthcare, fintech, renewable energy/clean tech and essential goods and services. Aruwa Capital has secured the backing of global institutional investors like- Mastercard Foundation, FSD Africa and Visa Foundation. Aruwa Capital won the award for Impact Investor of the Year in 2023: awarded by the Impact Investors Foundation (IIF) at the 6th Annual Convening on Impact Investing, being recognised for its contributions in closing gender gaps and fuelling economic growth in its markets.

Personal life
Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes is married with two sons.

Awards

 * 2x Global Woman Fund Manager of the Year (2023)
 * Black Women in Asset Management (BWAM) Top 40 award (2022)

Recognition

 * 150 EKO Aspire Women IWD Award from the Executive Governor of Lagos State (2023)
 * Choiseul 100 Africa 2023 Ranking
 * Empower Africa 30 Catalysts for Change Feature (2023)
 * Leading Ladies in Africa 100 Most Inspiring Women (2023)
 * Leading Ladies in Africa 4 Most Inspiring Women in Finance (2023)
 * Black YPO Group Youngest Female PE Fund Manager (2023)
 * Empower Africa 50 Impactful Women driving business in Africa (2023)
 * Tech PR 8 African Women Changing the Game in Venture Capital Feature (2023)
 * Choiseul 100 Africa 2022 Ranking
 * NBC Washington Top 35 Women Moving Africa Forward in 2020
 * Agent of Impact in 2019 (Impact Alpha)