TLcom Capital, African-focused venture capital, has appointed Eloho Omame as a partner six months after announcing the first close of TIDE Africa Fund II, its $150 million second fund (according to its partners, it expects to reach a second close later this year.)
From seed to Series B funding is what TLcom Capital is renowned for. In this category, some of the deals in its portfolio include uLesson, Ajua, Ilara Health, Kobo360, and Twiga. The venture capital firm has been flexible in its deal-making processes, though, and has registered a few deals at later stages, such as Andela’s Series C deal and Autochek’s pre-seed deal.
Appointing Eloho Omame To Reach Early Stage And Female-led Startups
The firm, which has offices in Lagos, London, and Nairobi, intends to take a more proactive approach and emphasize more on the pre-seed stage; Omame’s appointment is critical to achieving this goal. She is a co-founder and general partner of FirstCheck Africa, an early-stage company that invests in startups that have at least one female founder or co-founder and are in the pre-seed and seed stages. Omame led a community of high-impact founders on the continent as the founding managing director of Endeavor Nigeria before FirstCheck Africa.
It’s still very early in the African tech ecosystem. But the fact that startups received more than $5 billion in VC funding, according to a report, marked an inflection point last year. While foreign capital from global investors in the U.S. and Europe has been chiefly responsible for this growth, local and African-focused investors also contribute by raising small to medium-sized funds to support innovation.
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Only a small number of these companies, frequently wager from seed to series C over the years, have a pool of over $100 million to use in Africa. However, firms like TLcom Capital are increasing their appetite for much earlier deals; this is similar to how companies like Tiger Global and Softbank, which back IPO-ready companies, are moving toward seed deals when the valuations of later-stage startups downturn and IPOs stall.
TLcom Capital is aware that it must catch founders early in their journeys to access or generate deal flow. Additionally, the firm is keen to back more female-led companies at this stage from a diversity viewpoint (one example is its sole investment in Okra’s $1 million pre-seed round). The Africa-focused firm is dedicating “a few million dollars” from its fund to these two early-stage strategies, according to partner Ido Sum. First, build a pipeline to later stages by backing gender-neutral startups early on with small check sizes and a low-touch approach. The other is a $2 million co-investment commitment, managed by FirstCheck Africa for female-led startups at the pre-seed stage.
Backing Entrepreneurs In Their Journey With Her Hands-on Experience And Background
The partners argued that Omame’s background and hands-on experience make it qualified to handle these strategies. Maurizio Caio, the general partner at TLcom Capital, said during an interview with the partners, “We’re doing this not to alter our investment strategy, but making sure that our deal flow generation strategy covers all the possibilities. We chose Eloho because, in our interactions with her on different occasions, we found that her background and perspective on entrepreneurs were a great fit.”
In a conversation with a media firm, Omame expressed her desire to devote more of her time to each company while also becoming more deeply ingrained in Africa’s startup community. In her capacity as a TLcom partner, Omame will be responsible for following entrepreneurs in their journey l from the pre-seed stage through later stages. She is in charge of investing a total of $12 million (including this commitment from TLcom Capital and its $10 million debut fund) as a single pool of capital into female-led startups in Africa as a general partner at FirstCheck Africa.
Since FirstCheck Africa only launched in January, a debut fund of $10 million is a tremendous accomplishment. Although the firm’s current fundraising status is unclear, the VC firm, which is led by Omame and Odunayo Eweniyi, the co-founder and COO of Nigerian fintech startup Piggyvest, has made impressive headway with the resources at its disposal. It has so far invested in eight startups, the majority of which include female founders or CEOs, such as Jumba and Healthtracka.
Advocating For Female-led Founders
Omame, who has consistently advocated for female representation in the startup and venture capital world, said FirstCheck Africa’s opportunity to co-invest with TLcom is exciting for female founders. According to The Big Deal, which details investments in Africa, less than 1% of all VC funding last year went to startups with one or more women founders. From the standpoint of the female founders, they benefit from having a female-first investor who is committed to their long-term success as well as more capital than would have been provided under its initial target.
“TLcom runs the most credible, super well attended and organized female founder summit every year,” said Omame referencing the pan-African VC’s summit for female founders. “So there’s always been that commitment, and in my view, what’s happening here is how the firm wants to step that up a notch. Part of that is in committing actual and meaningful amounts of capital to be co-invested by FirstCheck Africa and saying how do we then connect that to a broader pipeline and strategies around the ecosystem as a whole? So in many ways, there’s lots of synergy happening here.”
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TLcom Capital is one of the very few VC firms with more female partners on the team, more specifically from a gender viewpoint. TLcom’s senior leadership is now 60% female, thanks to the latest hire (Eloho, Omobola Johnson, and Andreata Muforo).
As TLcom aims to expand its current portfolio from 13 companies to 30 with ticket sizes ranging from $500,000 to $15 million, Eloho’s track record in early-stage investing will be vital. The firm, which has made the most of its investments in West and East Africa (precisely, Nigeria and Kenya), also plans to begin backing companies in North Africa.
The co-investment plan, on the other hand, has allowed FirstCheck Africa to increase its investment capacity. The firm, which oversees both pools of capital and makes all investment decisions, intends to invest up to $250,000, including follow-ons largely dependent on TLcom Capital’s deal flow. “We’re allocating this pool and intend to generate a fairly wide pipeline in terms of a spectrum of business models,” said Sum. “I also think we are fully aligned on the sectors and verticals we would like to support for follow-on rounds.”