TLcom Capital closes second fund at $154m
With this second fund, TLcom maintains its early-stage focus and expands its mandate beyond sub-Saharan Africa to Egypt.
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TLcom Capital, the Africa-focused venture capital firm, today announced the final close of its TIDE Africa Fund II at $154 million.
At more than twice the size of TLcom Capital’s first fund, TIDE Africa Fund II is oversubscribed and sees participation from several new LPs alongside returning LPs from the firm’s first Africa-focused fund, TIDE Africa Fund I, closed in 2020. These include the European Investment Bank; Allianz and DEG Impact’s joint venture, AfricaGrow; Visa Foundation; and Bertelsmann.
With this second fund, TLcom Capital maintains its early-stage, multi-sector focus and expands its mandate beyond sub-Saharan Africa to Egypt. TIDE Africa Fund II will make initial investments of $1 million to $3 million, maintaining significant follow-on capacity to support strong portfolio performers into their growth stages, where the fund continues to see significant upside potential. The fund has already made its first investments in South Africa and Egypt with LittleFish, a software company enabling payments and banking products for retail-focused SMBs, headquartered in Cape Town, and ILLA, a middle-mile logistics platform headquartered in Cairo.
Maurizio Caio, founder and managing partner at TLcom Capital says, “TLcom now counts among a small number of venture capital firms that have raised multiple substantial funds for technology in Africa. This is a testament to the quality of our team and the trust we’ve established with our limited partners. It’s also a major endorsement of our long-term view on Africa’s massive upside.”
“We are maintaining the same investment strategy for TIDE Africa Fund II as we had for our first fund, which made over 80% of its investments at Seed or Series A. With this final close, we’re thrilled that TLcom is in an even stronger position to continue to partner with Africa’s most talented entrepreneurs from early in their company-building journeys. We’re also excited to spend more time in the Egyptian ecosystem, co-investing alongside the most active local funds. TLcom is well on its way to realising our ambition of becoming Africa’s most sought-after early-stage VC and a truly pan-African firm.”
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