Zidi Circle

Zidicircle started with a story. Its founder Fridah Ntarangwi, born and raised in Kenya, moved in 2014 to the Netherlands to study a masters degree in finance. Despite holding experience in running a startup as well as being highly educated she encountered difficulties to start a business in her European hosting country. Indeed, although the Netherlands being ranked as one of the best countries to start business, she had to deal with a lack of support structure for foreign entrepreneurs. Convinced that moving to a new country offers great opportunities and that diaspora entrepreneurs can truly benefit both host and home countries, Zicicircle was created to overcome these barriers.

Hence, zidicircle is a global incubator for African diaspora entrepreneurs, startups and SME’s wanting to grow their ventures in their countries of residence, home countries or internationally.  In concrete terms, by the means of their entrepreneurship bootcamps, the platform promotes inclusive entrepreneurship by offering trainings, ressources, incubations, coachings, mentorships, fundings and commercial networks for entrepreneurs.

Besides specific examples of the hundreds of start-ups and SMEs that have received support from Zidi, the platform is  managing and co-developing international start-up programs which are at different levels of maturity. In particular, some of Zidi’s programmes include the Semi-annual Diaspora Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, Zidi diaspora/African SME’s match making and the Zidi Diaspora Fund that is actively raising and investing in Diaspora and SMEs in Africa.

By offering their diaspora startups ecosystem all the training resources, coaching and patient capital that they need to grow their businesses, Zidicircle builds resilient infrastructures, promotes inclusive entrepreneurial opportunities and fosters innovation. For their various actions, Zidi has been recognized by the European Union’s Emen Project as one of the best migrant-led initiatives that promote inclusive entrepreneurship.
If you are curious to know more about this plateforme, we warmly invite you to visit their website at zidicircle.com