TLcom Capital closes $154 million fund for early-stage African startups

TLcom Capital, a Nairobi-based VC agency that has backed startups like Vendease, Seamless HR, and uLesson, has reached a last shut for TIDE Africa II, a $154 million fund centered on early-stage startups. The fund reached the primary shut of $70 million in January 2022 and was anticipated to hit a second shut by the top of that 12 months. 

It took over two years to achieve and surpass the funding goal. Maurizio Caio, founder and managing companion at TLcom Capital, stated the delay was as a result of they obtained giant investments requiring some documentation changes.  

TIDE Africa II is roughly two occasions the scale of TLcom’s first fund ($71 million), which closed in February 2021. 

Startup funding in Africa has slowed since 2022 as world enterprise capital urge for food declined. In 2023, African startups raised $3.2 billion, the bottom determine because the $2.1 billion in 2020. As international capital steadily disappeared from the ecosystem, led by the exodus of 400 unique investors, native enterprise capital corporations like TLcom have stepped up.  

The VC agency begins investing on the seed stage or Sequence A and follow-up capital for portfolio firms which have reached their development phases.

“The $1 to $3 million vary is the vary of our first verify,” Caio stated. 

TLcom Capital additionally plans to fund female-founded tech startups. With a dedication of $2 million, TLcom was an early investor in FirstCheck Africa, a female-focused pre-seed fund launched in January 2021. 

The corporate’s ambition is to point out the worldwide VC market within the subsequent three to 5 years that the African tech ecosystem can usher in nice returns. It’s concentrating on investments in 20-25 startups.

“We’re sustaining the identical funding technique for TIDE Africa Fund II as we had for our first fund, which revamped 80% of its investments at Seed or Sequence A,” Caio stated. 

Traders within the TIDE Africa Fund II embrace the European Funding Financial institution (EIB), Allianz, DEG Influence’s three way partnership, AfricaGrow, Visa Basis, and Bertelsmann.  

Other than increasing to Egypt and South Africa, the brand new fund allows TLcom to companion with African founders to sort out the continent’s greatest and most advanced challenges with modern options. 

TIDE Africa Fund II has already been deployed in South Africa and Egypt with Cape City-based LittleFish, a software program firm enabling cost and banking merchandise for retail-focused SMBs, and Cairo-based ILLA, a middle-mile logistics firm.