TLcom Capital’s TAPSI fund hits milestone, deploying half its $5M into African startups

TLcom Capital, a prominent venture capital firm with a dedicated focus on the African continent, has reached a significant milestone in its early-stage investment strategy. Its $5 million pre-seed fund, known as TAPSI (TIDE Africa Pre-Seed Investments), has now officially deployed half of its available capital. This achievement comes with the fund’s latest investment in the South African travel payment platform, TurnStay, which recently closed a notable $2 million seed round.

The news is more than just a simple financial update; it’s a window into a changing landscape where institutional investors are increasingly looking to support African founders from the earliest stages. It highlights a critical shift in how capital is being deployed to nurture the next generation of tech-enabled businesses across the continent. Launched in 2022, the TAPSI Fund was designed to extend TLcom Capital’s investment reach into the pre-seed stage, providing up to $200,000 in initial funding. But its value proposition extends far beyond a check. It offers startups access to the firm’s extensive global network, deep operational expertise, and more than two decades of African venture investing experience.

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This strategic fund also acts as a vital stepping stone for promising startups, serving as a direct feeder for TLcom’s larger, and much more substantial, $154 million TIDE Africa Fund II. This multi-stage approach gives a clear pathway for early-stage companies with strong performance to progress to larger follow-on rounds, reinforcing TLcom’s role as a long-term, committed partner to its founders.

TurnStay: Streamlining Payments in Africa’s Tourism Sector

At the heart of this latest milestone is TurnStay, a South African-based travel fintech platform founded by seasoned entrepreneurs Alon Stern and James Hedley. The company was created to solve a deep-seated and persistent problem in Africa’s burgeoning travel and tourism industry: the high cost and inefficiency of cross-border payments.

Traditional payment methods often come with a high price for African businesses. As TurnStay’s founder Alon Stern has noted, while traditional African payment processing can cost over 7% per transaction, their solution offers savings of up to 70%. The platform’s core innovation lies in its merchant-of-record model, combined with a sophisticated payment orchestration system. In simple terms, when an international tourist books a trip or a stay in an African country, TurnStay processes the payment in the traveler’s home country. This clever approach allows it to bypass costly cross-border interchange fees that would otherwise eat into the profit margins of local businesses. The funds are then settled locally with the African travel company, often using stablecoins to ensure speed and efficiency, reducing settlement times from weeks to just days.

The $2 million seed round, which saw participation from a mix of prominent US and African VCs including First Circle Capital, Enza Capital, Incisive Ventures, and CVVC, validates TurnStay’s model and its early traction. Since its pre-seed round in July 2024, the company has processed over ZAR250 million (approximately $13.5 million) in transactions, securing partnerships with key industry players. This latest funding will be used to accelerate its expansion across key African markets, enhance its technology, and continue its mission to enable African travel companies to compete on a level playing field with global platforms.

Inside the TAPSI Fund’s Portfolio

The investment in TurnStay is a clear reflection of the TAPSI Fund’s sector-agnostic approach, which prioritizes markets with strong potential for outsized impact. A look at the fund’s existing portfolio reveals the diversity of its bets on the future of African tech.

Beyond TurnStay, TAPSI’s portfolio features promising startups like:

• Talstack (Nigeria): An HR tech platform that provides a comprehensive suite of tools for talent management and recruitment. It is a case in point for the TAPSI fund’s strategy, as it leveraged early support to validate its model and achieve traction before successfully securing a seed round from the larger TIDE Fund II in 2024.
• Bright Financial (Sudan & Ethiopia): A fintech startup focused on providing financial services in challenging, underserved markets.
• Tradehub (Egypt): An e-commerce platform that simplifies B2B trade, offering businesses a more efficient way to source goods and manage logistics.
• Agrails (Kenya): An agritech venture that uses technology to help smallholder farmers improve their yields and access markets.

This diverse portfolio, spread across some of Africa’s most significant innovation hubs, underscores the fund’s commitment to identifying and nurturing solutions tailored to local challenges.

A particularly noteworthy aspect of TAPSI’s strategy is its partnership with First Check Africa, a fund dedicated to investing in female-led startups. This collaboration has already resulted in three female-led ventures being added to TAPSI’s portfolio, highlighting a deliberate effort to address the gender funding gap in the African tech ecosystem. As Eloho Omame, a Partner at TLcom Capital and Co-Founder of First Check Africa, has emphasized, this partnership is driven by the belief that a more diverse leadership team is critical for building the most successful and scalable companies of the continent’s future.

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The Broader Context: A New Chapter for African Tech Funding

The story of the TAPSI Fund’s deployment is particularly significant when viewed against the backdrop of the broader African tech funding landscape. The year 2024 was marked by a general slowdown, leading to a period of consolidation and caution. However, the first half of 2025 has signaled a clear rebound.

According to recent reports, African tech startups have secured over $1.4 billion in funding in H1 2025, representing a robust 78% increase compared to the same period in 2024. This growth, which was driven by both equity and debt, demonstrates a renewed investor confidence in the continent. The funding rebound was not uniform, however. While the top three sectors—fintech, energy, and healthcare—attracted 71% of all capital, other sectors like agriculture and logistics saw steep declines. The rebound also saw a geographic concentration, with countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa remaining the biggest magnets for capital.

In this environment, pre-seed funds like TAPSI play a crucial role. They are not just providing capital; they are acting as a necessary pipeline for the entire ecosystem. As larger funding rounds become more selective and investors concentrate on fewer, more mature deals, the importance of early-stage capital has never been greater. It is this “patient capital” that allows founders to validate their models, build early traction, and prove their business viability before they are ready for a larger seed or Series A round.

This dynamic also speaks to a broader maturation of the African tech ecosystem. The rise of multi-stage investors like TLcom, who can support a company from ideation all the way to exit, creates a more stable and predictable environment for founders. It offers them the security of knowing that if they succeed at one stage, there is a clear path to securing more capital from a trusted partner at the next.

TLcom Capital: A Multi-Stage Vision for Africa

TLcom Capital’s journey in African tech is a story of long-term commitment. With approximately $250 million under management across its various funds, the firm has established itself as a cornerstone of the continent’s venture capital ecosystem. Its strategy is built on a deep, on-the-ground presence with offices in Lagos, Nairobi, and London, allowing its partners to have a firm understanding of the local markets and connect with founders.

The firm’s approach is centered on “value generation” — working with entrepreneurs to build businesses that not only generate financial returns but also create massive value for the continent and its communities. It targets companies that are addressing critical challenges in underserved markets and can demonstrate a clear, defensible competitive advantage.

TLcom’s broader portfolio includes some of Africa’s most celebrated tech names, including:

• Andela: The talent-as-a-service company that achieved unicorn status, showcasing Africa’s potential to produce globally competitive tech talent.
• Pula: An agricultural insurance company that uses data and technology to provide solutions for smallholder farmers.
• Autochek: An automotive technology company that is building the infrastructure to enable a seamless and transparent car ownership experience.
• FairMoney: A digital bank that offers instant loans and financial services to underserved populations.

These companies represent the firm’s successful track record of backing ventures that have scaled to become leaders in their respective sectors.

Eloho Omame’s Vision: The Power of Early Support

Eloho Omame, a key Partner at TLcom Capital, has been a driving force behind the firm’s strategic focus on the early-stage ecosystem. Her dual role as a Partner at TLcom and a Co-Founder of First Check Africa provides a unique perspective on the importance of nurturing talent from the very beginning.

Her vision is rooted in a clear understanding of the challenges African founders face. As she stated, “Building in Africa is not for the faint-hearted, but the likelihood of success increases significantly when we partner with founders early and grow alongside them.” This philosophy is a testament to the belief that with the right guidance, network, and capital, ambitious entrepreneurs can overcome the significant hurdles of building a scalable business on the continent.

The TAPSI Fund is a direct manifestation of this belief. It allows TLcom to get in on the ground floor, working with founders when their ideas are still in their nascent stages. By providing a combination of capital and hands-on support, the fund helps to de-risk these early ventures and position them for long-term growth.

The Road Ahead: Reinforcing the Funding Lifecycle

With half of its capital already deployed, the TAPSI Fund expects to close up to 10 additional pre-seed investments before the end of 2026. Its focus remains on diverse founding teams in Africa’s major innovation hubs, ensuring that the fund continues to fuel the continent’s vibrant and dynamic startup ecosystem.

This deliberate and measured approach reinforces TLcom’s role as a long-term partner committed to Africa’s most ambitious founders. By backing companies from ideation and product-market fit through to scale and maturity, the firm is not only building a successful portfolio but is also actively helping to shape the future of African technology and entrepreneurship. The success of funds like TAPSI and companies like TurnStay will serve as a powerful testament to the potential of a continent on the rise, proving that a strategic, long-term vision can turn early-stage bets into industry-defining successes.

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By: Montel Kamau

Serrari Financial Analyst

15th August, 2025