TLcom Capital, a venture capital firm with an emphasis on Africa, has increased the pre-seed stage of its deal flow production while also beginning to focus on Egyptian companies.
In January 2022, TLcom, which was established in 1999 and has offices in Lagos, Nairobi, and London, announced the first closing of its US $150 million TIDE Africa Fund II. TLcom now manages US $350 million of assets throughout Africa and Europe.
Twiga Foods, Andela, uLesson, and Kobo360 are just a few of the companies in the TLcom portfolio. It has also successfully executed two exits. It has added Eloho Omame as a fifth partner in order to increase its capacity as it ramps up the distribution of its new fund.
Omame is a co-founder and general partner at FirstCheck Africa, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in female-founded or co-founded high-growth ICT firms. She will combine her duties at FirstCheck Africa and TLcom to promote the launch of FirstCheck Africa’s US $10 million debut fund, which will receive a US $2 million co-investment commitment from TIDE Africa Fund II.
TLcom said that Omame will strengthen its high-touch approach with entrepreneurs and promote deal flow creation at the pre-seed stage as the company redoubled its dedication to Africa’s burgeoning digital market. More effort will be put into expanding the portfolio of TLcom’s female-led businesses.
The expansion of TLcom’s existing portfolio from 13 to 30 firms will “prove important” given her track record in early-stage financing. The firm will continue to primarily target seed to Series B founders who are tackling some of the most complex challenges on the continent in sectors like fintech, mobility, agriculture, healthcare, education, and e-commerce. TLcom has expanded the range of its core ticket sizes to US $500,000 – US $15 million. Geographically, TLcom will begin with Egypt and broaden its current emphasis on East and West Africa to encompass North Africa.
“With the launch of our new fund, we are more committed than ever to Africa. As we partner with more entrepreneurs, it is vital that we are able to maintain our existing level of high-quality, on-the-ground strategic support to unlock the full value-generation potential of these companies. With our portfolio companies, and our investors, we are building for the long term and fully focused on the upside of the tech sector,” said Maurizio Caio, founder and managing partner at TLcom.
