TLcom has appointed a new partner in the person of Eloho Omame, to join in achieving its goal of helping African startups scale via its investments.
The appointment comes six months after the Africa-focused Venture Capitalist announced the first close of its $150 million fund, TIDE Africa II, with expectations to reach the second close later this year.
TLcom Capital invests in seed to Series B stage startups but has also invested in pre-seed and Series C stage startups such as Autochek and Andela respectively.
The appointment of Omame is in line with the VC’s current drive to focus more on pre-seed stage startups. Omame is the co-founder and general partner at FirstCheck Africa which invests in pre-seed and early-stage startups that have at least one female founder or co-founder.
Before FirstCheck Africa, where she is in charge of investing a total of $12 million — the firm’s $10 million debut fund and $2 million commitment from TLcom — as a single pool of capital into female-led startups in Africa, she was the founding managing director of Endeavor Nigeria.
The current development would enable TLcom to leverage Omame’s experience in dealing with pre-seed stage startups, but not alter the VC’s investment strategy.
In her new role, Omame will be at the forefront of ensuring early-stage entrepreneurs scale through the processes of succeeding to the later stages.
With plans to invest in more female-led companies, and expand its current portfolio from 13 companies to 30 with cheques ranging from $500,000 to $15 million, TLcom’s decision to appoint Omame will help seamlessly achieve this.
The firm also plans to start investing in companies across North Africa, going beyond its current reach in West – Nigeria and East Africa — Kenya to be precise.
For FirstCheck, this co-investment opportunity with TLcom will enable its increased investment as both VCs have a similar mission and drive towards similar directions, with plans to invest up to $250,000 plus follow-on investment tied to the deal flow of TLcom.
