TLcom Capital has made a fresh addition to its $5 million pre-seed portfolio, TAPSI (TIDE Africa Pre Seed Investments), by participating in the $2 million seed round of South African travel payments platform TurnStay. The deal marks TAPSI’s halfway point in deploying its dedicated early-stage capital, launched in 2022 to provide African startups with up to $200,000 in pre-seed funding.
TAPSI was designed as an upstream feeder to TLcom’s core $154 million TIDE Africa Fund II. It makes it easier for high-performing pre-seed portfolio companies to progress to larger rounds. The fund complements TLcom’s multi-stage strategy, using the firm’s two decades of African venture investing experience, operational expertise, and global network.
The current TAPSI portfolio spans multiple markets and sectors, including Nigeria’s Talstack, Sudan- and Ethiopia-focused Bright Financial, Egypt’s Tradehub, Kenya’s Agrails, and three female-founded startups backed through a partnership with First Check Africa. The fund remains sector-agnostic, focusing on areas that show high early-stage potential for impact and scale.
TurnStay, TAPSI’s latest portfolio company, is tackling one of the continent’s toughest travel sector challenges: cross-border payments. Using a merchant-of-record model combined with payment orchestration, the fintech enables African travel merchants to accept payments in travellers’ home currencies while settling locally in stablecoins. This reduces processing fees by up to 70% and shortens settlement times. This inturn helps local operators compete with global platforms. The startup has processed over ZAR250 million (about $13.5 million) in transactions and secured partnerships with major travel players since its 2024 pre-seed round. .
Eloho Omame, Partner at TLcom Capital, said the pre-seed strategy is vital to the firm’s long-term mission:
“Pre-seed investments allow us to expand our portfolio and allocate capital across multiple stages of a company’s lifecycle. 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… the likelihood of success significantly increases if we support and work with founders earlier on in their journeys.”
Africa’s early-stage funding gap remains one of the continent’s biggest barriers to startup growth. In most cases, later-stage rounds attract large foreign capital sndf this leaves many promising ideas with limited access to early funding. Funds like TAPSI help to bridge this gap by offering capital as well as mentorship and access to follow-on investment.
The Talstack example is a clear look at TAPSI’s pipeline model. The Nigerian startup received pre-seed funding from TAPSI and went ahead to secure a seed round from TIDE Fund II in 2024. This approach gives founders a clear pathway from idea validation to growth capital without leaving the TLcom network.
Market impact
TLcom is one of Africa’s most established tech investors with approximately $250 million under management. Some of the companies in its portfolio include Andela, Pula, uLesson, FairMoney, and Autochek. TLcom positions itself as a long-term partner capable of supporting founders from ideation to IPO or acquisition just by embedding TAPSI into its platform.
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