FirstCheck Africa - Afrikan Heroes

TLcom Capital Expands Into Egypt

July 5, 2022

TLcom Capital, the Africa-focused VC firm which has been active in parts of the continent has expanded its deal flow generation into the pre-seed area while also starting to target Egyptian ventures.

The VC which was founded in 1999 and with offices in Lagos, Nairobi and London, has US$350 million of assets under management across Africa and Europe, and in January 2022 announced the first close of its US$150 million TIDE Africa Fund II.

The TLcom portfolio includes Twiga Foods, Andela, uLesson, and Kobo360, among others, and it has completed two exits. It is now expanding its capabilities as it ramps up deployment of its new fund, and with that in mind has taken on Eloho Omame as a fifth partner.

Eloho Omame co-founder and general partner at FirstCheck Africa

Omame is co-founder and general partner at FirstCheck Africa, a female-focused early-stage venture capital firm that has to-date invested in 10 high-growth tech startups with a female founder or co-founder. She will combine her new role at TLcom with her existing responsibilities at FirstCheck Africa, which with TLcom to support the launch of FirstCheck Africa’s US$10 million debut fund with a US$2 million co-investment commitment from TIDE Africa Fund II.

TLcom said Omame would bring more senior capacity to its high-touch approach with entrepreneurs and support deal flow generation at the pre-seed stage, as the firm doubled down on its commitment to Africa’s thriving tech opportunity. There will be even greater emphasis on attracting more female-led companies into TLcom’s portfolio.

Her track record in early-stage investing will “prove vital” as TLcom expands its current portfolio from 13 companies to 30. With TLcom widening the range of its core ticket sizes to US$500,000 – US$15 million, the firm will continue to primarily target seed to Series B founders that are tackling some of the continent’s most complex challenges in sectors including fintech, mobility, agriculture, healthcare, education and ecommerce. Geographically, TLcom will expand its traditional focus on East and West Africa to include North Africa, starting with Egypt.

“With the launch of our new fund, we are more committed than ever to Africa. As we partner with more entrepreneurs, it is vital that we are able to maintain our existing level of high-quality, on-the-ground strategic support to unlock the full value-generation potential of these companies. With our portfolio companies, and our investors, we are building for the long term and fully focused on the upside of the tech sector,” said Maurizio Caio, founder and managing partner at TLcom.

“We are especially proud to strengthen our team with a partner of Eloho’s calibre – a seasoned investor who mirrors our founder-first ethos, and will play a critical role in enabling us to deepen our commitment to the founder journey in Africa through her early-stage experience. Equally, her expertise will prove invaluable in strengthening our existing support for female entrepreneurs. We look forward to working with Eloho to drive the next phase of our mission to transform Africa’s key verticals through tech-enabled solutions.”

Omame said it was an honour to join “one of the most prestigious investors in African tech”.

“TLcom has seen the benefits of an early-stage approach through the success of both new and repeat founders in TIDE Africa Fund I. As we deploy capital from TIDE Africa Fund II, it’s crucial that we continue to win the race to find the continent’s best entrepreneurs and support their companies to scale,” she said.

“The firm has always demonstrated its commitment to Africa and to the development of its startup ecosystem. It’s exciting to be in a position of mission-alignment with respect to female founders and I’m thrilled to step up the important work we’ve started at FirstCheck Africa with this incredible show of support from an established, high-calibre fund like TLcom.”

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

FirstCheck Africa Secures $2M, To Invest Up To $250K In African Female-led Startups

June 27, 2022

FirstCheck Africa has received a $2 million investment from TLcom Capital, one of the most notable Africa-focused seed to series B venture capital firms. The most recent commitment will enable FirstCheck Africa to support even more female-led startups by providing access to more finance. FirstCheck Africa will invest $12 million as a single pool of capital in high-growth, technology-driven firms with at least one female founder or co-founder, including its $10 million debut fund.

Eloho Omame, one of FirstCheck Africa’s founders, has joined TLcom Capital as a Partner, in addition to her current day-to-day work as Co-Managing Partner at FirstCheck Africa.

FirstCheck Africa will now invest up to $250,000 in early-stage rounds for female-led firms as high-conviction first checks.

“We remain sector-agnostic and focused on technology-enabled companies that are solving important problems in large markets. Our strategy is to invest in female-led companies with category-leadership potential while throwing the weight of FirstCheck Africa’s networks and platform behind the founders that will be the next generation of entrepreneurial role models for Africa,’’ FirstCheck Africa noted in a statement.

Africa’s digital and venture capital ecosystem is at an exciting crossroads in terms of talent, capital access, firm formation, and diversity. FirstCheck Africa has invested over the past 18 months, honing its theory and putting its investment method to the test.

Eloho and Odun created FirstCheck Africa as an angel fund in January 2021 to solve finance access for female digital entrepreneurs in Africa.

“We’re excited that what started as personal commitments to invest up to $25k each in six female-led companies has evolved into an institutional fund with millions of dollars under management. In the last 18 months, FirstCheck Africa has invested in 10 female-led startups in four countries. Our portfolio companies have been accepted into three global accelerators (including Y Combinator), and a number have raised sizeable follow-on rounds, with FirstCheck Africa as the first or second institutional investor on their cap tables. We’ve opened doors for female-led companies, helping them close their rounds faster and on founder-friendlier terms,” the venture capital firm further noted.

Only five female-led startups in Africa received $1 million or more in early-stage funding from FirstCheck Africa three years ago. Last year, there were 33, and so far this year, there have been 19, including 6 startups this month, three of which FirstCheck Africa is an investor in.

“We’re quickly becoming the preferred early-stage investor for female founders building venture-scale companies, and we are proud to be building an investment firm with their needs in mind. We’re a small fund with big ambitions, and we’ve designed our portfolio strategy with our founders’ needs in mind. Access to capital is a primary and complex challenge for female-led companies. It’s essential for a mission-oriented early-stage, female-focused fund to bring sufficient capital to give young companies the runway to focus on traction above all else while giving them the confidence to pursue disciplined fundraises when the time comes. Through our debut fund, we will make targeted investments at pre-seed, keep the capacity to double-down with follow-on investments when the most promising of those companies are ready for seed capital and retain some flexibility to invest for the first time at the seed stage, where a female-led company might have raised a previous institutional round,” FirstCheck Africa further noted.

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