TLcom Capital closes Ksh.20B fund to back early-stage African start-ups

Africa-focused venture capital (VC) firm TLcom Capital has announced the final close of its second fund for technology in Africa, TIDE Africa Fund II, at $154 million (Ksh.20.6 billion).

TIDE Africa Fund II sees participation from several new and returning investors from TLcom Capital’s first Africa-focused fund, TIDE Africa Fund I, which closed in 2020.

These include the European Investment Bank (EIB), Allianz and DEG Impact’s joint venture, AfricaGrow, Visa Foundation and Bertelsmann.

Based in Nairobi and Lagos, the VC firm is among the continent’s largest Seed and Series A investors. It says with this second fund, it seeks to maintain its early-stage, multi-sector focus and expand beyond Sub-Saharan Africa to Egypt.

In a statement provided to Citizen Digital, TLcom Capital said TIDE Africa Fund II will make initial investments of $1 million to $3 million, maintaining significant follow-on capacity to support strong portfolio performers into their growth stages, where the fund continues to see massive upside potential.

It also plans to deploy significant additional capital into female-founded African tech start-ups.

“We are maintaining the same investment strategy for TIDE Africa Fund II as we had for our first fund, which made over 80% of its investments at Seed or Series A. With this final close, we’re thrilled that TLcom is in an even stronger position to continue to partner with Africa’s most talented entrepreneurs from early in their company-building journeys,” Maurizio Caio, Founder and Managing Partner at TLcom Capital, said.

“We’re also excited to spend more time in the Egyptian ecosystem, co-investing alongside the most active local funds. TLcom is well on its way to realising our ambition of becoming Africa’s most sought-after early-stage VC and a truly pan-African firm.”

TLcom Capital supports a number of the continent’s fastest-growing start-ups, including uLesson, Autochek, Pula, Fairmoney and Andela, one of the continent’s six unicorn companies.

The firm has attracted Africa’s top repeat founders, including Sim Shagaya, founder of uLesson, Konga and DealDey; Etop Ikpe, founder of Autochek and Cars45; and Grant Brooke, co-founder of Shara and Twiga.

“Africa's start-up ecosystem has the potential to drive inclusive economic growth and foster positive social change, which the EIB is happy to support. Through our investment in TLcom’s TIDE Africa II Fund, we expect to build and expand on the success and impact of the first TIDE Africa Fund, delivering much-needed capital to the most promising high-growth companies,” said Ambroise Fayolle, Vice President and Head of Investments at the European Investment Bank.

The VC firm says it has over $300 million under management, with its portfolio counting 17 start-ups among them Andela, Ajua, Autochek, Fairmoney, Ilara Health, ILLA, Kobo360, LittleFish, Okra,  Pula, Seamless HR, Shara, Terragon Group, Twiga, uLesson, Vendease and Zone.