TLcom has secured additional $31 million from its United Kingdom, South Africa, and Belgium investors, for its TIDE Africa Fund. This was disclosed by the firm in a statement seen by Nairametrics.
This latest fundraising round brings its Sub Saharan Africa (SSA)-focused fund to $71 million. TLcom, an Africa-focused venture capital firm, said this fundraising would enable it infuse capital in five to six investments in Africa.
The company disclosed in the statement that the $31 million fund was made possible by participation from the UK based CDC, IFC as well as South Africa’s Sango Capital and Belgium’s BIO.
Possible beneficiaries of the fund: TLcom will continue to invest through TIDE with additional five to six investments in pan-African companies over the coming 12 to 18 months from Seed to Later stage, as well as ensure capital resources for follow-on rounds for its existing portfolio.
Note that TIDE has 6 companies in its portfolio. They are Andela, Kobo360, Twiga Foods, Ajua, Terragon Group and uLesson. Over the last 12 months, rounds led or co-led by TIDE Africa have raised over $150 million for African startups.
What you need to know about TLcom: Launched in 1999, the 20+-year old Venture capital firm currently has in excess of $200 million under management across primary and secondary funds. Last year TLcom Capital was named Africa Technology Investor of the Year at the PE Africa Awards.
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The highly experienced team, with Senior Partner and Nigeria’s former Minister of ICT, Dr Omobola Johnson based in Nigeria, and Partners Andreata Muforo in Kenya, and Ido Sum in the UK, has consistently leveraged its on-the-ground presence in Africa to develop a broad portfolio ranging from agriculture to education, data analytics and logistics, focusing exclusively on technology-enabled services and innovation for SSA, across all stages of the venture capital cycle.
Nairobi-based Founder and Managing Partner at TLcom, Maurizio Caio, while reacting to the new investment in TLcom said, “It is time for Africa VC to graduate into a world-class asset class that can generate massive returns. We are excited to bring on board new strategic institutional investors, such as CDC, IFC, Sango Capital and BIO into the fund that share this view.
“Attracting international investment from such renowned backers into the African VC space reflects the recognition of the work the TLcom team has already achieved in connecting some of the continent’s strongest entrepreneurs with the capital they need to scale.”
Chief Executive of CDC, Nick O’Donohoe, UK’s publicly owned impact investor and largest investor in the Fund, said, “The investment in TLcom provides a critical foundation in our endeavour to plug the funding gap for early-stage companies and bolster entrepreneurship across Africa. CDC is excited to work with TLcom, leveraging technology and innovation to intervene in critical sectors such as education or agriculture and helping to address important consumer and business challenges.”
Omobola Johnson also stated that, “We are bullish on supporting and investing in tech-enabled African companies due to the opportunities for value generation that they provide. We are known for being an entrepreneur-led VC firm who values Africa-centric innovation, strong leadership teams and businesses who are solving real challenges in the market.”
