Aruwa Capital Management, one of Africa’s few woman-led private equity firms, has secured $35 million for its second fund to invest in inclusive, impact-driven businesses across Nigeria and Ghana, according to a press release. Aruwa Capital Fund II drew backing from major institutions, including the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund (MFAGF), Visa Foundation, British International Investment (BII), and Nigeria’s Bank of Industry (BOI), the fund’s first local institutional investor, based on the release. It also attracted capital from global family offices and others with a target of $40 million. However, that number has since changed to $50 million, with a hard cap of $60 million. “In the midst of the current challenging fundraising environment, we are excited to have raised 90% of our target fund size for Fund II and to be upsizing due to strong investor interest,” said Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, founder and managing partner of Aruwa Capital Management, in a press release via her...

While it may be faster for African businesses to trade goods with other partners outside of the continent, it also makes them more dependent on exports and prevents new markets from being created. To combat this, Ghanaian-based company Jetstream is proposing its own solution. Jetstream — which operates as a vertical broker between the fragmented and often-hidden segments of cross-border supply chains in Africa — uses technology in order to simplify the process of moving cargo across borders, per its company website. Today, its mission has become focused on “white labeling the systems built internally to manage shipments and financing for customers,” according to TechCrunch, and the startup just closed a $3 million seed round to continue this work. The outlet reports that the funding round included both local and international investors as participants, such as Alitheia IDF, Golden Palm Investments, 4DX Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Asia Pacific Land, Breyer Labs and MSA...