About Zidi

Zidicircle was founded by Fridah Ntarangwi, a Kenyan turned diasporan in Europe. Her personal journey highlights the obstacles diasporans encounter when establishing businesses. Local business incubators did not align with her specific needs or the communities she aspired to impact, and fundraising proved to be a formidable challenge. Motivated by these experiences, she resolved to Zidicircle with the aim of providing diverse entrepreneurs and investors with comprehensive resources, incubation support, coaching, and streamlined access to funding.

WHAT WE DO

Since 2016, Zidicircle has continuously worked with development partners, private sector, governments, diaspora organisations and diasporans themselves to participate in entrepreneurship and investment activities in their host and home countries. Zidi was started in The Netherlands and has since supported diaspora entrepreneurs and investors in Europe and Africa and hopes to expand into other markets. Zidi’s diaspora programmes run across europe coordinated from our head office in Amsterdam-The Netherlands and our regional offices in Brussels-Belgium and Hamburg-Germany. We work with ecosystem SME supporters across Africa to identify high performing green SME’s and match them to our trained Diaspora Angel investors and entrepreneurs. Activities are coordinated from our regional offices in Morocco, Ghana and Kenya.

We aspire to become the foremost global leader in fostering diaspora entrepreneurship and advancing the capacity-building for angel investments, serving as the premier gateway for angel investors

We facilitate diaspora-led development in host and home countries in two ways:

By supporting and training high potential entrepreneurs and investors through group and self-paced courses, incubation and investment channels

By pooling diaspora angel investments into SME’s through our member and technology driven platform

OUR APPROACH

ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING: Zidi addresses barriers to entrepreneurship and investment by providing comprehensive training services. Through self-paced and group training, we empower diasporans with the knowledge and skills needed to navigate entrepreneurial and investment ecosystems.
ENTREPRENEUR MENTORSHIP: Our investment matchmaking services connect aspiring entrepreneurs with mentors and investors who understand and appreciate their potential, facilitating fundraising opportunities and valuable networks that break through exclusionary practices.

INVESTOR TRAINING: Many diaspora investors often do not know where to start in investing in SMEs and startups? They often ask how they can do it and who they can trust? Our diaspora angel investment fellowship offers a learning opportunity for first time diaspora angel investors to get a chance to invest in viable projects.
COOP INVESTMENT: This innovative platform enables diasporans to pool their resources together. By leveraging the power of pooling, Zidi transforms the investment landscape, providing an accessible and inclusive platform for diasporans to invest in SMEs in their home and host countries.