Tokunboh Ishmael is an accomplished and experienced private equity investor. She is MD and co-founder of Alitheia Capital – a Nigerian-based investment management and advisory business channelling private equity investments to transform businesses in West Africa where funding gaps create unique opportunities. In 2015, she co-founded Alitheia IDF to scale investing across Sub-Saharan women-led SMEs.
At Alitheia Capital, she manages funds on behalf of institutional sophisticated investors. She sits on the investment committee and on investee company boards. Historic investments have been in finance, housing clean energy, recycling and financial services.
At Alitheia, they provide financial and non-financial support to unlock the value of high potential businesses that address the needs of undeserved markets and the growing consumer segment.
They are well regarded and respected as one of the few impact investing fund managers in West Africa. The Principals and team members have good reputation within the local and global investment industry. They are active in several associations including AVCA, ANDE, 2X Challenge and LAN. They also create partnerships, relationships and networks that are leveraged for sourcing investable pipleline and co-investment opportunities.
Read also: FG equips S/South women farmers with climate change adaptation strategy
The have the Alitheia IDF Fund (AIF) Gender Lens Investing toolkit. The overview is an open resource that gives an outline of AIF’s approach to gender lens investing. AIF is a $100 million private equity fund that invests growth capital in SMEs in Western and Southern Africa using a gender lens to identify opportunities that increase returns to and improve outcomes for women. The toolkit is summarised for ease of applicability to funds that are interested in mainstreaming gender in their portfolio, or proactively investing with a gender lens.
Tokunboh is a CFA Charterholder, corporate financier and M&A banker historically having worked on over $5.6 billion M&A deals across the US, UK and Africa. She is exceptionally experienced in the energy, oil, gas, technology and financial services sectors. As an impact investor, Tokunboh is now focused on investing in and building sustainable growth businesses across attractive, consumer-led sectors including agribusiness, financial services, retail, technology and telecommunications – mainly on behalf of discerning institutions, development organisations and corporates looking for a mix of responsible investing, economic impact and social responsibility.
“Investing in businesses that simultaneously deliver social and financial returns has given me a front row seat on investing in scalable and sustainable enterprises that consciously solve developmental problems.” She said.
Ishmael is a Yale World Fellow, a member of the inaugural class of the Aspen Institute’s Finance Leaders Fellowship. She sits on a number of boards and is the current chair of the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA).
