💸 Adesuwa Okunbo's Aruwa Capital Raises $20M for its First Fund to Back Female-Led Startups in Nigeria & Ghana
FemWealth Issue #90
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
In the Spotlight 💸
Founded in 2019 by Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, Aruwa Capital Management successfully closed its first institutional fund to back female-led startups in Nigeria and Ghana. The oversubscribed fund surpassed its initial target of $20 million and is the largest first fund by a female solo GP in Nigeria.
“We are excited to continue to showcase the untapped potential of women in society through our investment portfolio at Aruwa Capital. Global data has shown that investing with a gender lens improves financial returns as well as providing a multiplier effect for social impact in local communities due to the role women play, we look forward to showcasing this in Africa specifically. We are also delighted to have been able to mobilise 30% of our Fund from local investors, who have a first-hand understanding of the operating terrain, as well as mobilising global capital from well-respected names, a trend we hope to see continue.” - Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, Founder of Aruwa Capital Management.
The fund focuses on scalable, innovative businesses that provide essential goods and services to women, are founded or led by women, or have gender-diverse teams. It will invest $500,000 to $2.5 million in profitable women-focused SMEs in Nigeria and Ghana, predominantly in sectors such as healthcare, fintech, renewable energy, and essential consumer goods.
Read more here and here, and visit aruwacapital.com
FemWealth Springboard 👩⚕️
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
Startups: 💸 Archive lands $15M as more clothing brands ‘get serious about resale’ - Co-founded by Emily Gittins, Archive enables brands to sell inventory that has been either returned, damaged, or exchanged online. The series A round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Bain Capital Ventures.
💸 Bitwave raises $15 million for crypto-focused tax and accounting platform - Amy Kalnoki is Bitwave’s Co-Founder and COO.
💸 Cacheflow doubles valuation while raising $10M, proving that the venture market is far from dead - Sarika Garg is the CEO and co-founder of the US-based company building tools for the software sales closing process.
💸 Dae Hair Raises $8M Series A Funding Amid 'Strong Category Tailwinds' - Dae Hair is founded and led by Amber Fillerup Clark.
💸 Helping make the makers of tomorrow, London’s Makers makes off with £7 million - The London-based company, led by Claudia Harris, has raised a £7M round led by BGF with the participation of existing investors Forward Partners and Educapital. 40% of its students are women (2x the UK tech industry average), and 40% are from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds.
💸 Virtual Fertility Clinic Turtle Health Launches in 8 US States with $5.4M in Funding - Founded and led by Amy Zwanziger, the company launched in 8 US states after raising $5.4M in funding, led by Switch Ventures with participation from Blue Seed Collective, NextGen Venture Partners, Everlywell, Maven, Mayo Clinic Ventures, and US Fertility. The comprehensive at-home fertility assessment clinic enables patients to access reproductive endocrinologists without having to leave their homes.
💸 Female-led deeptech startup Pathway announces its $4.5m pre-seed round - Co-founded and led by a Polish-French female duo, Zuzanna Stamirowska (CEO) and Claire Nouet (COO), the French AI startup raised $4.5m in a pre-seed round led by Inovo and Market One Capital. Pathway is developing a tool that provides companies with real-time analysis of fast-moving data from multiple sources.
💸 Aiming to eclipse silicon-based LIDAR chips, Phlux Technology raises £4 million in seed funds - Sheffield University professor Jo Shien Ng helped spearhead the founding research.
💸 With Pickme, your neighbor can receive your packages for you - Co-founded and led by Jessie Toulcanon, the French startup raised €3,5 million to build a new network of pick-up and drop-off points for e-commerce retailers and logistics companies.
💸 Accacia tackles the real estate industry’s massive carbon emissions problem - Founded and led by Annu Talreja, Accacia enables large property owners a way to track their carbon impact in real time. The India-based company raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Accel and B Capital.
💸 ImVitro Raises $2.5M in Seed Funding to Increase IVF Clinic Workflow Efficiency and Maximize Success with AI - The company, led by Dr. Alexandra Boussommier, applies computer vision and artificial intelligence to the IVF fertility imaging process. It has raised $2.5M in seed funding led by LDV Capital and joined by MMC Ventures, Tiny VC, Fly Ventures, and Compound VC.
💸 As the speedy grocery giants falter, this startup is backing a sustainable alternative - Co-founded and led by Juliette Poiret, French sustainable grocery delivery startup La Tournée has raised €2m in a pre-seed round led by French firm Frst.vc. It offers a zero-waste grocery delivery service to customers on a day of their choice.
💸 Melon secures £1.2 million pre-seed for upskilling tailor made to social media natives - Founded and led by Sanne Fouquet, the startup aims to enable people to find content that matters to them and encourage life-long learning.
💸 Pixyle AI wants to make visual search more intuitive for online retailers - Founded and led by Svetlana Kordumova, the Amsterdam and North Macedonia-based startup has raised a €1 million seed round from South Central Ventures.
🧠 Sisters Get Concussion Diagnostic Funded, FDA Approved, And Reimbursed - Features Rosina Samadani, president and CEO at Oculogica, a healthtech company focused on measuring brain impairment from concussions and cannabis, and her sister Uzma Samadani, MD and Ph.D., a neurosurgeon and brain injury researcher at the University of Minnesota.
📣 Shout-out to Missy Lavender, CEO of Renalis, a startup that treats expensive, chronic, and pervasive conditions “below the belt” with digital therapeutics for which they seek FDA clearance. They are currently raising their seed round.
VC: 💸 European Investment Fund pumps €50 million into climate tech VC World Fund - Daria Saharova is one of World Fund’s Founding Partners.
Here’s why we need more female fund managers
“The raw power and potential of women in venture capital could not be more clear. When women move money, funds outperform. When women invest in other women, they create a chain reaction of exponential impact on women and the world.” - Lisa Wang, founder of BAD BITCH EMPIRE
💪 Women are rising through the ranks at VC firms, new survey shows (TC Plus $)
“Right now, we’re seeing greater transparency into compensation, career paths and succession planning than ever before. And there’s a stronger mandate for D&I, both from the managing directors and their limited partners. As a result, more and more women are looking at venture as a serious career path, and that’s why we are seeing them start to show up more in these junior ranks.” - Jody Thelander
👩🏽💻 2022 Early Stage Founder Sentiment Report - Read January Ventures’ 4th annual survey report reveals the impact of economic conditions on early-stage founders and how the current macro environment is affecting female and underrepresented founders. Also, read State of European Tech
🙌 Lux Capital promoted Deena Shakir to General Partner and Grace Isford to Partner.
🌐 Meagan Loyst: How to you kickstart your network when you're just getting started in VC?
Women’s & Family Health: 👶 This CEO is helping women start families when — and how — they want - Features Tammy Sun, CEO of Carrot, a fertility benefits company.
“The company was born out of a desire to make sure that every single person, regardless of their age, their sex, their sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, race or geography would have equal access to high quality care. A lot of women in their 40s and 50s are your most successful managers. They're your most senior executive leaders. They’re your C-suite. So we've invested a lot in age inclusion.” - Tammy Sun
❤️ A healthcare brand for women begins to take shape - Features Dina Radenkovic, co-founder and CEO of Gameto, a company on a mission to redefine female reproductive health.
Sustainability: 💚 Finnish unicorn RELEX’s founders launch €100m charitable foundation - Johanna Småros is one of RELEX’s co-founders. The Finnish unicorn launched a new €100m foundation to donate to groups fighting climate change and working to reduce inequality.
Tech: 👩🏻💻 Slack’s new CEO, Lidiane Jones, brings two decades of product experience to the job - Lidiane Jones, an executive with decades of experience in enterprise software and consumer commerce, will step into the CEO role at Slack at the end of the next month.
Women’s Power & Politics: 😍 The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women - Forbes’ annual list of most powerful women features posthumously Jina “Mahsa” Amini, whose death in September sparked the women-led revolution in Iran, along with traditional power players, including 39 CEOs; 10 heads of state; and 11 billionaires worth a combined $115B.
🌍 Meet The World’s Most Powerful Woman: Ursula Von Der Leyen, President Of The European Commission | Also, read From Christine Lagarde To Giorgia Meloni: The Most Powerful Women In Politics In 2022 and Power Rising: These Are The Women To Watch In 2023
Culture: 🎥 Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe Launch Production Company A Touch More - Athletes Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe have launched A Touch More, a production company that plans to amplify narratives around identity, activism, and underrepresented communities, including LGBTQ people, POC, and women.
Thank you for reading FemWealth! 🥰 Please share this issue with a friend. Get in touch at femwealth@substack.com.
Have a fun Sunday and a successful (hopefully not too crazy) week!
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth