West Africa Convergence Conference
Conference Event

West Africa Convergence Conference

Arise Funds presented the Workforce Capital investment model at WACC, demonstrating how localized talent infrastructure acts as the primary engine for sustainable digital economic growth.

Read the panel address from the conference.
WACC News Pictures
Aisha Saaka Lewis Portrait

The Investment Thesis

Providing the capital, operational infrastructure, and institutional systems that make early-stage workforce companies investable

Workforce Infrastructure

We don't fund projects. We finance infrastructure.

The global workforce crisis is not a talent problem. It is a systems coordination failure – training programs exist, employer demand exists, and worker motivation exists, but structural disconnects prevent people from accessing dignified, income-generating work at scale. This is true in Lagos. It is equally true in Louisville

Arise Funds finances the infrastructure that resolves this failure: workforce development and technology companies with employer-integrated models, AI-enabled operations, and capital structures designed to generate returns as employer revenue scales. These are not training programs. They are human capital enterprises.

How We Work

We don't write checks and wait. We deploy capital and operational infrastructure together — because in workforce markets anywhere in the world, one without the other rarely works.

01 — Capital

Structured entry into blended capital vehicles.

We structure and deploy blended capital — combining concessional funding, income-linked financing, and equity — calibrated to the institution's stage and risk profile. Capital is patient, structured around employer pipeline depth, not arbitrary timelines.

02 — Infrastructure

Operational build-out that creates investable companies.

Alongside capital, we second talent directly into portfolio companies to build the institutional infrastructure that larger investors require. HR, governance, compliance, financial controls, and M&E systems — built from the ground up, to institutional standard.

03 — Scale

Transition to institutional capital at scale.

We position portfolio companies for long-term institutional capital — DFIs, development banks, sovereign wealth funds — by building the data, governance, and verified outcome infrastructure they require. We de-risk the entry. They provide the scale.

Where talent meets work infrastructure.

From security operations centers to data analytics labs — across Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the United States and beyond — Arise Funds portfolio companies build the environments where real careers begin.

Strategic The Work, In Practice Partnerships

We collaborate with leading institutions to create a comprehensiveecosystem for student success

Strategic Partnerships

Where talent meets
infrastructure

From security operations centers to data analytics labs — across Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the United States and beyond — Arise Funds portfolio companies build the environments where real careers begin.

Cybersecurity · SOC Operations

Cybersecurity · SOC Operations

Replace with: mixed-ethnicity SOC team at monitors

Suggested search: "diverse cybersecurity analysts SOC"

Software Development · Global Teams

Software Development · Global Teams

Replace with: South/East Asian professionals, mixed group

Suggested search: "diverse international tech team collaboration"

Data Science · AI & Machine Learning

Data Science · AI & Machine Learning

Replace with: Latina/South Asian woman presenting, mixed audience

Suggested search: "woman presenting analytics diverse team"

The ICBM Model

AppICBM is a 7-stage workforce development flywheel — not a training program.

1

Discover

AI-driven aptitude assessment and pathway matching — directing talent correctly before training begins.

2

Prepare

Removing structural barriers to participation — devices, connectivity, financing — before training begins.

3

Train

Competency-based training across five digital economy pathways — building job-ready skills.

4

Certify

Globally recognized certifications that employers trust and that hold their value across borders.

5

Employ

Verified employment placement — into BPO operations, government contracts, and private sector partnerships.

6

Advance

Graduates advance into higher-value roles — analysts, engineers, managers, and entrepreneurs.

7

Reinvest

Graduate repayments and employer revenue fund the next cohort. The system becomes self-sustaining at scale.

The Team

The Arise Funds team brings together impact investment strategy, federal systems expertise, and 30+ years of human capital leadership.

Aisha Saaka Lewis

Aisha Saaka Lewis

Chief Executive Officer

Most impact investors come from finance. Aisha Saaka Lewis comes from AI. As a Data & AI Strategist at Accenture Federal Services — where she led analytics transformation for public sector clients including enterprise reporting oversight for PEPFAR — and a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, she spent her career applying technology and data to the hardest problems in government and global development.

What she kept seeing was a gap: the infrastructure to connect capital, technology, and workforce development existed in pieces but never as a coherent investment thesis.

LaTonya Blakes

Vice President, Human Resources

When Arise Funds deploys capital into a portfolio company, LaTonya Blakes is the person who goes in to build it. Seconded from Arise Funds to SBTS Group LLC, she leads the HR infrastructure, compliance frameworks, talent systems, and organizational design that turn an operating company into an institutionally investable one — the human side of the active investor model in practice.

Her career spans more than three decades in human capital leadership, including a decade at Booz Allen Hamilton where she directed HR for the National Defense University, led the firmwide Veterans Recruiting program, and built early-career talent pipelines across the DMV region.

LaTonya Blakes

Laura C. Rudert

Global Strategy & Delivery Leader

Global Strategy & Delivery Leader Laura C. Rudert has spent more than 20 years deploying over $4 billion across climate, infrastructure, and development programs in 30+ countries. As Resident Country Director at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, she led a $525M compact in Côte d'Ivoire and helped design Power Africa.

At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she served as Deputy Director of Strategy & Management across 280 staff and 8 global offices. An HKS MPP alumna — she has operated on both sides of the capital table.

Laura C. Rudert

First Portfolio Investment

Arise Funds actively builds and expands the employer network that absorbs ICBM graduates

The model, proven.

SBTS Group LLC is the first company financed and operationally supported by Arise Funds — and the live demonstration that Workforce Infrastructure Investing works. In January 2026, the first cohort of ICBM graduates began earning income in verified digital economy roles.

SBTS Group LLC is the first company financed and operationally supported by Arise Funds — and the live demonstration that Workforce Infrastructure Investing works. In January 2026, the first cohort of ICBM graduates began earning income in verified digital economy roles.

50K Youth Employment Target50K Youth Employment Target
8 Countries – Current Footprint8 Countries – Current Footprint
7 Stage Talent Economy Flywheel7 Stage Talent Economy Flywheel
Young Women – Every CohortYoung Women – Every Cohort

Get in Touch

Ready to deploy capital into workforce infrastructure?

Arise Funds is actively building partnerships with impact investors, development finance institutions, and government bodies. If that describes you we respond to every serious inquiry personally.

Or reach us directly

info@arisefunds.com