Africa's largest fund focused on investing in companies that benefit women has been launched, worth $100 million.

Tokunboh Ishmael, a co-founder of Alitheia IDF, is helping to revolutionize the way business funding is allocated to women business owners in Africa. With over 20 years of investing experience, Ishmael launched Alitheia Capital, a private equity firm, in 2007.

Alitheia IDF is in the business of providing support and resources to female business owners and entities that serve or directly impact women. Ishmael told TechCrunch that they are not only addressing the discrepancy of funding for female founders, but also the scarcity of products and services available to women.

Ishmael and co-founder Polo Leteka are offering financing, mentorship, strategic growth, access to markets, and access to talent to the businesses they invest in. As Leteka explains, “we want them to scale and help inject gender consciousness into the founding teams, the management teams, the boards, and the companies.”

So far, the fund has invested in JetStream, ReelFruit, SweepSouth, Chikas, Skld, Psaltry, Wemy, and Ivili Loboya, with an estimated value of $100 million. Ishmael believes that this is just the beginning of increasing the amount of venture capital available to female founders, noting that “the $100 million just scratches the surface of the paucity of funding for female founders and companies that serve women.”

The efforts of Alitheia IDF are already making a significant impact on the availability and accessibility of business funding for women business owners in Africa. We can look forward to more initiatives like these to continue to fight against racial and gender bias and inequality.

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