Africa-focused venture capital firm, TLcom, has secured an additional $31 million for its TIDE Africa Fund, bringing its sub-Saharan Africa-focused fund to $71million.
This latest investment round has attracted international interest, with TLcom confirming participation from the UK based CDC, which injected $15 million into the fund last month, IFC as well as South Africa’s Sango Capital and Belgium’s BIO.
Speaking on the new investments in its TIDE Africa Fund, Maurizio Caio, Nairobi based Founder and Managing Partner at TLcom says, “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.”
Since its first close in 2017, the fund has invested in six companies -- Andela, Kobo360, Twiga Foods, Ajua, Terragon Group and uLesson, and over the last 12 months, rounds led or co-led by TIDE Africa have raised over $150 million for African startups.
To drive this home, Nigeria’s former minister of ICT and TLcom’s senior partner, had this to say.
“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.”
The venture capital firm with over $200 million under management across primary and secondary funds is now looking to make an 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 TLcom’s existing portfolio.
