Early-stage African Venture Capital, TLcom Capital, has raised $154 million from investors to fund its expansion to Egypyt and invest more in startups tackling the continent’s challenges through innovation.
According to a statement released by the company on Monday, investors in the new funding round include the European Investment Bank, Allianz SE, and the Visa Foundation. Other investors in the company’s TIDE Africa Fund II include DEG Impact’s joint venture AfricaGrow and Bertelsmann.
The TLcom Capital TIDE Africa Fund II has already made its first investments in Cairo-based ILLA, a middle-mile logistics platform, and South Africa-based LittleFish, an e-commerce platform, according to the statement.
TLcom Capital also plans to deploy significant capital into female-founded African tech startups, similar to TIDE Africa Fund I, Maurizio Caio, founder and managing partner at the VC firm, said in an interview.
Relief for African startups
The capital raise may offer some relief to African technology and startup firms after VC inflows plunged last year. According to a recent report by the London-based African Private Capital Association, they fell 31% in 2023 to $4.5 billion from a year earlier.
The report attributed the decline to economic headwinds including weak currencies and high inflation, which prompted foreign investors to pull back from African economies.
- “Across Africa, access to capital remains limited, especially for early-stage startups. Africa’s startup ecosystem has the potential to drive inclusive economic growth and foster positive social change, which the EIB is happy to support,” Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-president at the EIB, said in the statement.
What you should know
TLcom Capital in March this year co-led a Seed round of $8.5 raised by Nigerian payment infrastructure company, Zone. Providing background into the investment, TLcom said it first came across Obi Emetarom and Wale Onawunmi, co-founders of Zone, about five years ago when they were fundraising for AppZone, their previous company.
- “While we were impressed by their deep understanding of the fintech industry in Nigeria, we ultimately decided not to invest. AppZone delivered tremendous value to its bank and financial services clients by building core banking software and payment solutions to meet their needs; however, we preferred to invest in a product-centric business model that could create a venture-scale company.
- “We kept in close touch with the team. When they decided to build Zone as a standalone proposition from AppZone, we were thrilled to co-lead the Seed round with Flourish Ventures,” it said.
TLcom Capital, Africa’s largest seed and series A investor, has more than $300 million under management and backs 17 startups including Andela, one of the continent’s six unicorns, uLesson, an edutech platform and Terragon Group, a data and marketing company.
