Aruwa Capital Management (“Aruwa”), an early-stage growth equity and gender lens fund investing in Nigeria and Ghana, today announced the completion of its investment in Sika Financial Group (“Sika Box US Inc” or “Sika”), a financial market infrastructure company building the clearing, settlement, liquidity, and market data infrastructure powering cross-border financial flows across Africa and the Global South. Aruwa is leading Sika’s seed extension round through Aruwa Capital Fund II with a $2 million investment (including co-investors), reinforcing its commitment to backing category-defining businesses addressing critical infrastructure gaps across emerging markets.
Aruwa Capital Management (“Aruwa”), an early-stage growth equity and gender lens fund investing in Nigeria and Ghana, today announced the completion of its investment in Sika Financial Group (“Sika Box US Inc” or “Sika”), a financial market infrastructure company building the clearing, settlement, liquidity, and market data infrastructure powering cross-border financial flows across Africa and the Global South. Aruwa is leading Sika’s seed extension round through Aruwa Capital Fund II with a $2 million investment (including co-investors), reinforcing its commitment to backing category-defining businesses addressing critical infrastructure gaps across emerging markets.
Founded in 2023 by Emmanuel Ashirifi, Sika is building the financial plumbing that enables institutions, corporates, brokers, payment providers, and market participants to move value efficiently across fragmented currency markets. Through its proprietary ClearNet platform, Sika provides institutional-grade foreign exchange settlement, liquidity aggregation, multilateral netting, Payment-versus-Payment (PvP) settlement, and market data services across frontier and emerging market currencies.
The investment comes at a pivotal moment for Africa and other high-growth regions where cross-border trade, capital flows, and investment activity continue to accelerate, yet financial infrastructure remains fragmented. While advanced economies benefit from mature clearing and settlement systems that reduce risk and improve liquidity, many emerging markets continue to rely on fragmented bilateral relationships, costly correspondent banking networks, and manual settlement processes that increase costs, constrain liquidity, and expose participants to settlement risk. This infrastructure gap is particularly significant in Africa, where the African Continental Free Trade Area (“AfCFTA”) is expected to unlock one of the world's largest integrated economic markets. Despite growing trade activity between African nations, a substantial portion of intra-African trade continues to be intermediated through foreign currencies and offshore financial centres, creating unnecessary costs, FX shortages, liquidity constraints, and operational inefficiencies.
Sika addresses these challenges by providing infrastructure that enables financial institutions and corporates to settle transactions directly across multiple currencies while reducing reliance on traditional correspondent banking pathways. Through multilateral netting, local currency settlement capabilities, and real-time liquidity optimisation, Sika helps market participants reduce settlement costs, improve capital efficiency, and strengthen access to regional liquidity. The Company's infrastructure also contributes to broader financial stability objectives by mitigating principal settlement risk, increasing transparency across fragmented markets, and supporting the development of more efficient and resilient capital markets throughout Africa and other underserved regions.
Today, Sika supports a growing network of financial institutions, corporates, fintechs, brokers, and liquidity providers operating across Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. The Company has established regulatory and operational presence across multiple jurisdictions, supports settlement across more than 15 currencies, and continues to expand its network of institutional participants and strategic infrastructure partners.
Beyond commercial growth, Sika's model delivers meaningful developmental impact. By improving the movement of capital and reducing friction in cross-border trade and investment, the Company supports greater economic integration, stronger regional value chains, enhanced market liquidity, and improved access to financial services across emerging markets. Its infrastructure aligns closely with the objectives of AfCFTA, central banks, stock exchanges, and policymakers seeking to deepen regional financial integration while promoting local currency usage and reducing dependence on external settlement systems.
The capital from Aruwa will support the next phase of Sika's growth, including expansion of its regulatory footprint, enhancement of its clearing and settlement infrastructure, extension of supported currency corridors, and continued investment in enterprise partnerships, risk management, and technology capabilities.
"Financial markets cannot scale efficiently without trusted infrastructure. While capital, trade, and investment increasingly move across emerging markets, the underlying systems responsible for clearing, settlement, liquidity, and risk management remain fragmented. Sika was built to address this challenge. We are creating the financial market infrastructure that enables institutions to transact confidently across borders while reducing risk, unlocking liquidity, and improving capital efficiency. As trade and investment across Africa and the Global South continue to grow, the need for resilient, interoperable, and institution-grade settlement infrastructure becomes increasingly important. We are pleased to welcome Aruwa Capital as our lead investor, their conviction, strategic support, and long-term perspective make them an ideal partner as we continue building critical infrastructure for the next generation of global financial markets."
-Emmanuel Ashirifi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sika
"Sika is addressing one of the most fundamental challenges facing financial markets across Africa and other emerging economies: the lack of efficient and trusted infrastructure for cross-border settlement and liquidity management. The Company's technology, regulatory strategy, and infrastructure-first approach position it to become an important enabler of trade, capital formation, and financial integration across underserved markets. We believe the scale of the opportunity is substantial, particularly as governments, financial institutions, and businesses seek more efficient ways to move capital across borders. Sika's work aligns strongly with our investment strategy of backing businesses that combine commercial potential with meaningful economic & social impact. By reducing friction in financial markets and enabling greater participation in regional and global commerce, Sika has the potential to generate significant value for both market participants and broader economies.
“In line with Aruwa's gender lens investing strategy, 50% of its senior management team are women, and 37% of its total workforce are women. We will continue to support Sika in strengthening governance, operations and institutional capacity as the Company scales. We are excited to partner with the team for the journey ahead.”
-Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, Founder & Managing Partner of Aruwa Capital