TLcom Capital says it has now deployed half of its dedicated $5 million pre-seed fund, TAPSI [TIDE Africa Pre Seed Investments], following a new investment in TurnStay, a South African travel payments platform that has just closed a $2 million seed round. The pre-seed vehicle writes cheques of up to $200,000 and plugs startups into TLcom’s operating support and global network, while acting as an upstream feeder to the firm’s $154 million TIDE Africa Fund II.
What TAPSI is backing, and why it matters
Launched in 2022, TAPSI extends TLcom’s pipeline to founders at the idea and validation stages, with the option to graduate high performers to the larger fund. The current TAPSI portfolio includes Talstack [Nigeria], Bright Financial [Sudan and Ethiopia], Tradehub [Egypt], Agrails [Kenya], plus three companies supported through TLcom’s partnership with FirstCheck Africa, which focuses on female founders. TLcom expects to add up to ten more pre-seed investments by the end of 2026, with a continued emphasis on diverse founding teams across major African hubs.
Multi-stage strategy in practice
TAPSI is sector-agnostic, but concentrates on areas where early experiments can compound into sizable outcomes. The firm points to Talstack as an example of how the model is meant to work. The company validated its product with TAPSI backing, then secured a subsequent seed round from TIDE Africa Fund II in 2024, underscoring the fund’s role as a bridge from pre-seed to scalable growth.
Eloho Omame, Partner at TLcom, says the earlier engagement boosts the odds of success in a tough operating environment. “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. 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.”
Context, TLcom’s wider footprint
TAPSI builds on TLcom’s long-running strategy of concentrated, hands-on backing of category builders. In April 2024, TLcom announced the close of TIDE Africa Fund II at $154 million, the largest early-stage VC fund focused on Seed and Series A on the continent. See our earlier coverage: TLcom Capital closes $154M early-stage VC fund for African tech startups.
The firm’s portfolio spans several well-known names. Recent Techish reporting on TLcom-backed companies includes Pula’s new consumer product DelayPay, which offers automatic payouts for delayed domestic flights in Kenya, and its 2024 Series B raise to expand agricultural insurance. Read more: Pula unveils DelayPay and Pula raises $20 million Series B.
On mobility fintech, TLcom has been an active Autochek backer over multiple milestones. Backgrounders: Autochek secures $13.1M seed led by TLcom and 4DX and Autochek launches operations after acquiring Cheki Kenya.
TLcom also invested early in uLesson, the edtech company founded by Sim Shagaya. See: uLesson secures $3.1M seed funding. And for readers tracking the evolution of TLcom’s vehicles, revisit the TIDE Africa Fund I milestone: TIDE Africa Fund closes at $71M.
The fund’s collaboration with FirstCheck Africa also has history on these pages, including the appointment of FirstCheck co-founder Eloho Omame as TLcom Partner and a $2 million co-investment commitment from TIDE II to FirstCheck’s debut fund. Reference: Eloho Omame joins TLcom as partner.
What to watch
- Deployment pace. With 50 percent of TAPSI’s capital already at work, watch for more small, fast cheques across Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa through 2026.
- Graduations to TIDE II. Expect more TAPSI grads to raise larger rounds from TLcom’s core fund when early traction is clear.
- Founder diversity. Given the FirstCheck collaboration, continued support for female founders at pre-seed should remain a theme.
Eloho Omame adds that with TAPSI as a dedicated pre-seed arm, TLcom aims to back founders from ideation and product-market fit to scale and maturity, positioning the firm as a long-term partner across the startup journey.
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