With its most recent investment in TurnStay, the South African travel payment platform, which has just closed a $2M seed round, TAPSI has now deployed 50% of its capital.

TAPSI was launched in 2022 to extend TLcom’s investment reach to pre-seed stage companies, providing up to $200,000 in funding alongside access to the firm’s global network, operational expertise, and over two decades of experience in African venture investing.

The fund acts as an upstream feeder vehicle for TLcom’s core $154M TIDE Africa Fund II, enabling portfolio companies that perform well to progress to larger funding rounds.

In addition to Turnstay, the TAPSI portfolio currently includes Talstack [Nigeria], Bright Financial [Sudan and Ethiopia], Tradehub [Egypt], Agrails [Kenya] and three startups backed through its partnership with First Check Africa, which focuses on delivering early-stage capital to female founders.

Through TAPSI, TLcom expects to close on up to ten additional pre-seed investments before the end of 2026 and will continue to invest in diverse founding teams across Africa’s major innovation hubs.

Building on the investment approach of TLcom’s TIDE Fund I and TIDE Fund II, TAPSI is sector-agnostic and focuses on key sectors where TLcom sees strong early-stage potential for outsized impact.

Talstack’s journey demonstrates this approach in practice, leveraging its TAPSI pre-seed funding to validate its model and achieve early traction, culminating in a subsequent seed round from TIDE Fund II in 2024.

This dedicated pre-seed fund strengthens TLcom’s position as a multi-stage investor, reflecting the firm’s deep understanding of the funding lifecycle of the African tech ecosystem and the critical role early capital plays in setting African startups on a path to scale and create impact.

Eloho Omame, partner at TLcom Capital, says,

“Pre-seed investments allow us to expand our portfolio and allocate capital across multiple stages of a company’s lifecycle. Our goal is to create massive value in underserved markets and collaborate with African founders to build from the start all the way to exit; be it an acquisition or in the form of an IPO. This is by no means easy for any start-up, in any sector; building in Africa is not for the faint-hearted. However, the likelihood of success significantly increases if we support and work with founders earlier on in their journeys and we grow alongside them”.

TLcom boasts one of African tech’s most impressive early-stage portfolios, including Pula, uLesson, Autochek, FairMoney, Educatly, HUB2, ILLA, Littlefish, Seamless HR, and Andela – one of the continent’s tech unicorns.

With approximately $250 million under management, including the $154M TIDE Africa II, TLcom is dedicated to empowering ambitious entrepreneurs who are solving critical challenges in large, underserved markets.

Eloho Omame concludes,

“With TAPSI as a dedicated pre-seed arm of our investment platform, TLcom is uniquely positioned to back companies across their entire growth journey from ideation and product-market fit to scaling and maturity, reinforcing our role as a long-term partner to Africa’s most ambitious founders. As we progress with this fund, we look forward to speaking with and supporting more early-stage start-ups from across the continent”.

Through its digital actuary platform, Pula customizes insurance products to the specific needs of farmers and their partners. In embedding insurance premiums into farm input costs or credit packages, Pula ensures accessibility to even the most remote farmers. 

This approach has garnered support from global investors, with a recent $20 million series B funding led by BlueOrchard, aiming to expand partnerships and introduce livestock covers.

One of the fund’s focuses is to bolster its mission to empower agricultural communities and enhance resilience against climate-related risks.

In recent years, Pula has partnered with organizations like the World Food Programme (WFP) and various agricultural associations, to increase access to crop insurance, offering protection against risks and adverse weather conditions.

One of Pula’s successful collaborations has been with WFP in Kitui, Kenya, where the program has grown from insuring 1,000 farmers to approximately 10,000 over three years. 

The insurance payouts, totaling $766,000, have been essential in stabilizing household incomes during droughts and severe weather events, empowering farmers to invest in their families’ well-being and agricultural assets.

Expanding its reach beyond Kenya, Pula partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2020 to insure over half a million farmers for the wet season. This initiative, which included farmers from the National Cotton Association of Nigeria and Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, supported agricultural communities across borders.

Pula’s impact is not just on financial compensation. Research conducted by the company indicates that agricultural insurance leads to increased investment in farms, improved yields, and higher household savings. With only 1% of small-scale farmers in Africa currently covered by insurance, Pula’s efforts are important in bridging this gap and empowering agricultural communities.

The company plans to introduce livestock covers in countries like Kenya following a successful pilot program in Nigeria. Additionally, Pula aims to further penetrate markets in Asia and Latin America, building on its success in enhancing the resilience of smallholder farmers worldwide.

Pula leverages historical data and digital tools to design affordable insurance plans that protect farmers against yield losses due to weather events, pests, and diseases.

The impact of Pula’s work is seen in the increased investment, yields, and savings reported by farmers using their products. Additionally, payouts from Pula’s partner insurers have reached over $40 million, directly benefiting close to 1 million farmers.

The headline session will feature a fireside conversation with Julia Collins, who will share valuable insights on her experience as a successful serial tech entrepreneur. The event is expected to be the largest gathering of women in tech in Africa.

With the current global macroeconomic environment in mind, the theme for the 2023 Africa Tech Female Founder Summit is Building Resilience: Adapting to New Realities, which addresses head on the challenges African founders and operators are currently facing, as well as providing timely and practical advice and support from experienced global and African business leaders.

Julia Collins, the first black woman to build a unicorn, will give this year’s keynote, as well as host a masterclass session on Getting to Product Market Fit.

Julia is now building Planet FWD, a leading decarbonization platform for consumer companies.

She will be joined on the day by Cikü Mugambi [Kobo360], Enas Siam [FlexStock], and Thomas Njeru [Pula], who will hold a panel on “When the going gets tough”, whilst Tokunbo Ishmael [Alithea Capital] will discuss the Importance of Investing in Women.

In addition, this year, the Africa Tech Female Founder Summit will host a number of masterclasses held by TLcom Partners such as Eloho Omame, as well as a special focus on Building and leveraging Networks by leading Executive Visibility expert Glory Edozien.

Having hosted the summit with 150+ African female founders and operators in Nairobi in 2022, this year sees the event move west to Lagos, Nigeria.

Applications to attend the event are now open.  

Speaking on the upcoming event, Omobola Johnson, Senior Partner at TLcom Capital, says,

“2023 has been a challenging year for founders across the continent, so this year we will be gathering our community of women in tech in Africa to share experiences, learn from experts in their fields and develop coping tactics that will help build resilient businesses to weather this current climate. We want to discuss in depth what resilience means and how it can be infused into businesses, their leaders, and their teams.” 

Andreata Muforo, Partner at TLcom Capital, adds,

“At this year’s Africa Tech Female Founder Summit, we will not only be discussing business survival but also business growth; there are opportunities for founders, even during more turbulent economic times. We’re excited to be hosting the continent’s largest gathering of women in tech, bringing some truly experienced and inspiring speakers to the table. We want all attendees to leave with not only a vision and renewed sense of community support but also with actionable insights that will benefit their businesses”.  

TLcom’s TIDE Africa Fund II, which is one of the most active funds across Africa, boasts a leadership team which is 60% female.

The firm has actively supported female founders not only through its annual summit but notably through its track record of investing in some of Africa’s top female-led startups, such as Okra and Pula. In 2022, TLcom also doubled down on its drive to address the severe funding gap for Africa’s female tech entrepreneurs with a co-investment commitment to support the launch of FirstCheck Africa’s debut fund.

Currently, TLcom manages total commitments of approximately $350mn and holds several African startups in its portfolio, including Andela, Ajua, Autochek, Ilara Health, Kobo360, Okra, Pastel, Pula, Seamless HR, Shara, Terragon Group, Twiga Foods, uLesson and Vendease.

With an on-the-ground presence in Kenya and Nigeria as well as offices in the UK, the firm invests across all stages of the venture capital cycle with a focus on Seed and Series A.

TLcom also invests across a wide range of industries, including agriculture, education, fintech, data analytics and logistics, targeting high-growth, tech-enabled startups across Africa.