Two Decades of VC Investing
Since 1999 TLcom has supported tech entrepreneurs in Europe, US and Africa across all technology sectors, from semiconductor manufacturing to mobile solutions and services, and at all stages of development, from seed to growth capital. Our partnership with entrepreneurs goes well beyond the provision of capital to include strategic, operational and financial support in designing and executing superior business models in large markets. Our exit track record across regions include recent transactions in Africa such as the acquisition of Upstream on behalf of private equity group Actis, and the acquisition of Movirtu on behalf of global mobile leader Blackberry.
Focus on Value Generation
Our goal is to work with African entrepreneurs to generate massive value for the continent, their companies, their communities and their investors. This will attract more capital and ultimately more opportunities to the continent.
We believe that significant value only comes from entrepreneurs that can articulate and execute a strategy that establishes a defensible competitive advantage in its chosen market, based on a lower cost position and / or a superior value as perceived by their target customers.
We target entrepreneurs who can best serve Africa by emphasizing the role of African leadership, creating jobs, targeting underserved markets, bringing efficiency to inefficient verticals, and ultimately providing evidence of the enterprise as a development tool.
The Entrepreneur at the Center
We are not the central actors in the value generation process: the entrepreneur is, and we are at her / his service. We believe that the coming together of great business strategies, strong execution, and capital are key ingredients to building valuable businesses. Our goal is to ensure that our partnership with entrepreneurs accelerates and amplifies the value generation potential for the business.
Locally Rooted and Globally Connected
The TLcom partners have been working in Africa for decades and have deep roots and an established network on the continent. Most of our partners are based in Africa. But as a firm we are globally connected, leveraging the global academic and work experience of our partners, the presence of one of our partner in London, our long history of investments in Europe and the USA, our portfolio exits to global players, and our global basis of institutional investors. We leverage our many years of tech VC experience in selecting, scaling and exiting companies, as well as our local and global networks to provide broad support to entrepreneurs.
Successful Africa Exits
We have profitably exited a number of our African investments via acquisition by strategic buyers and private equity funds. We know that Africa has the potential to build massively valuable companies and we are excited to participate in writing that narrative by partnering with tech innovators on the continent.
Dedicated to building the Africa tech ecosystem
TLcom is committed to be an active contributor to the broader emerging Africa tech ecosystem through various initiatives which to date include a publicly available investor database, a curated mentorship platform, a CEO Summit and a program to support female tech entrepreneurs.
