TLcom, the Africa-focused Venture Capital firm has today secured an additional $31M for its TIDE Africa Fund. The deal brings its Sub Saharan Africa (SSA)-focused fund to $71milion.
TIDE Africa is one of the active funds operating in Sub Saharan Africa since its first close in 2017, it has six companies in its portfolio including Andela, Kobo360, Twiga Foods, Ajua, Terragon Group and uLesson.
TLCom Launched in 1999 as a Venture Capital firm. It currently has more than $200M under management across primary and secondary funds. The management team 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.
Speaking on the new investments in its TIDE Africa Fund. Maurizio Caio, Nairobi based Founder and Managing Partner at TLcom says, “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. CDC, IFC, Sango Capital and BIO are part of the fund to share this view. Attracting international investment from such renowned backers into the African VC space reflects the recognition of the work. TLcom team has massively achieved in connecting some of the continent’s strongest entrepreneurs with the capital they need to scale.”
Over the last 12 months, rounds led or co-led by TIDE Africa have raised over $150milion for African startups. Through this last year, TLcom Capital was named Africa Technology Investor of the Year at the PE Africa Awards.
To add on, Nick O’Donohoe, Chief Executive of CDC. The 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. This is significant for early-stage companies as it will bolster entrepreneurship across Africa. CDC is excited to work with TLcom to leverage technology and innovation to intervene in critical sectors such as education or agriculture. The collaboration will address important consumer and business challenges.”
The latest investment round has attracted international interest, with TLcom confirming participation from the UK based CDC, IFC as well as South Africa’s Sango Capital and Belgium’s BIO. The team is working on an additional five to six investments in pan-African companies over the coming 12 to 18 months. The investment will span from Seed to Later stage. It will as well as ensure capital resources for follow-on rounds for TLcom’s existing portfolio.
TLCom will continue to focus on supporting and investing in tech-enabled African companies. There are very many available opportunities for value generation that they provide.
“We are known for being an entrepreneur-led VC firm. We value Africa-centric innovation, strong leadership teams and businesses. Especially those that are solving real challenges in the market,”. Said Omobola Johnson, TLcom’s Senior Partner and Nigeria’s former Minister of ICT.