TechPression

Tag: TLcom

  • TLcom to host sixth Africa Tech Female Founder Summit in Nairobi

    TLcom to host sixth Africa Tech Female Founder Summit in Nairobi

    Africa-focused venture capital firm TLcom Capital is set to host its sixth Africa Tech Female Founder Summit on November 14, 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya. The event aims to unite, inspire, and empower female founders across the continent, providing them a platform for learning, networking, and establishing supportive connections.

    This year’s theme is “Transformative Leadership: Redefining Success in Tech.” The summit seeks to address the challenges and opportunities female tech founders face, offering them a space to redefine success and gain practical insights into leadership.

    It aims to equip female entrepreneurs with tools to scale their ventures and overcome challenges, especially in the current economic environment where access to capital is constrained and profitability is a top priority for investors.

    Read also: Rwanda to hosts Africa’s largest ArtificiaI Intelligence (AI) summit

    “After navigating one of the toughest years for the tech ecosystem, founders now face a completely new landscape. Capital is still scarce, and investors are increasingly pushing entrepreneurs to build, move to profitability faster, and scale. But amidst all these demands, we’re missing a crucial discussion – what does it take to succeed in this context, especially as a woman?” said Omobola Johnson, senior partner at TLcom Capital.

    The event will strongly emphasise identifying the leadership qualities needed to thrive in today’s demanding market and enable women founders to rise as industry leaders. The summit will highlight the skills and strategies female founders require to navigate tech entrepreneurship challenges successfully.

    Africa Tech Female Founder Summit Workshops

    The summit will feature diverse workshops and discussions designed to equip participants with the necessary skills and knowledge to grow their businesses. Speakers include successful female founders like Nelly Chatue-Diop (Ejara), Nneile Nkholise (Thola), Rasha Rady (Chefaa), and Sneha Mehta (Uncover). These trailblazers will share their experiences, lessons learned, and strategies for achieving growth and scaling their businesses.

    Workshops will cover critical topics such as “Budgeting and KPI Design”, led by Daisy Liech of TLcom, and “Growth Strategies and Scaling Successfully”, facilitated by Wandia Gichuru of Vivo. These sessions offer practical advice and guidance that participants can apply directly to their ventures.

    Read also: 11th Africa Fintech Summit kicks off in Kenya

    An exciting feature of the summit is the opportunity for pre-selected startups to pitch their companies to some of Africa’s leading investors. Investors such as Yemi Keri (Rising Tide Africa) and Joyce-Anne Wainaina (Chui Ventures) will provide feedback to the startups, giving founders a valuable chance to refine their business ideas and attract investment.

    Fostering a Supportive Female Entrepreneur Ecosystem

    Through initiatives like the Africa Tech Female Founder Summit, TLcom Capital is committed to fostering an inclusive, supportive ecosystem for African female entrepreneurs. By providing platforms for learning, growth, and investment, the firm is helping women leaders redefine success and make a lasting impact in the tech industry.

  • Kenya To Host 4th Africa Tech Female Founder Summit

    Kenya To Host 4th Africa Tech Female Founder Summit

    The fourth (4th) edition of the Africa Tech Female Founder Summit has been announced by Africa-focussed Capital firm TLcom. The event is to hold in Kenya next month.

    The launch of the fourth annual Africa Tech Female Founder Summit is scheduled to hold on Wednesday, 9th November 2022, in Nairobi, Kenya.

    With a number of panel sessions and workshops scheduled, the event will gather female entrepreneurs from across the continent to experience the power of connecting, learning from and being a resource to each other.

    Three outstanding speakers have been confirmed to speak on different tech business areas and share their experiences.

    According to TLcom’s announcement, the summit is themed “Dare To Do: The Scale Mindset” the 2022 Africa Tech Female Founder Summit will deliver expert insights on navigating the journey to scaling tech businesses, strengthening TLcom’s existing work in establishing a vibrant community of female tech founders in Africa who can learn from and support one another.

    Read also: DeFi Summit Hosts 400 Fintech And Crypto Leaders In Ghana

    The Summit Features

    The United States ambassador to Kenya and former CEO of eBay and Hewlett-Packard, Meg Whitman, is among the confirmed speakers for the fourth (4th) Africa Tech Female Founder Summit.

    At the headline session, which will feature a fireside chat with Meg Whitman, she’s to discuss her global experience scaling technology businesses.

    The second feature is the event’s keynote address, which will be handled by Odunayo Eweniyi, co-founder and COO of Piggyvest. She will share her scale journey of building Africa’s largest wealthtech company, and thereafter, will be followed by a panel discussion on leveraging operations, people and finance to scale sustainably.

    The third speaker is Rose Goslinga of insurtech leader Pula; she will also deliver a masterclass on OKRs. The summit will also feature female C-suite executives and founders from Africa’s leading tech companies, including Adia Sowho of MTN Nigeria, Radhika Bachu of Ndovu and Tebogo Mokwena of Akiba Digital.

    Starting from the era of COVID-19 pandemic, the summit has been held virtually, but this year, TLcom announced that the summit’s format is back to in-person. TLcom has now opened up applications for women techpreneurs across Africa and the diaspora to attend.

    Omobola Johnson, the Senior Partner at TLcom Capital, commented on the event that “This year’s summit will tackle head-on some of the challenges female founders face while moving the conversation on to actionable strategies for scaling their businesses.

    “The prospect of scaling for women entrepreneurs can often prove daunting due to the obstacles that arise, severely limiting their business growth. We are actively challenging our attendees to be bolder and even more ambitious in a bid to combat this.

    “Considering the growing number of female-led, tech-enabled businesses on the continent with potential for huge economic upside, it’s time to break this cycle. With the right strategic support, we firmly believe this emerging class of female-run start-ups can ultimately challenge the status quo in becoming Africa’s next generation of unicorns.”

    About TLcom Capital 

    TLcom Capital LLP is a venture capital firm based in Nairobi, Lagos and London, investing since 1999 in Telecom, Media and Technology (TMT) companies in Europe, Israel and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). TLcom manages total commitments in excess of €200 million.

    In July of 2017, TLcom held the first close of its new TLcom TIDE Africa fund, targeting $100m to invest in tech start-ups across Africa, focused on acceptability, fintech, commerce, consumer services (from health and education to energy and media) and services for corporates and SMEs.

    The fund is focused on helping the best companies utilise mobile as a platform to address and solve Africa’s most pressing needs.

    Its overall commitment across its entire market is approximately $300 million.

    Maurizio Caio, Founder and Managing Partner of TLcom, established the company in 1999 with an initial strategy covering Europe and Israel.

    Over the last ten years, TLcom has developed an interest in African commercial venture capital. TLcom raised an Africa VC fund about five years ago, and the fund closed its first round in 2017. The mobile revolution in Africa played a major role in the formation of the first international venture capital fund exclusively focused on tech-enabled business models for Sub-Saharan Africa.

    TLcom understood that startups were emerging across Africa and was dedicated to providing funds that enabled them to take advantage of the new opportunities to solve problems unique to the continent. The Africa-focused Capital firm also supports those with innovative business models and high-growth opportunities.