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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-ZW link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZW'><img width=848 height=288 id="Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D5E528.C8F61280" alt="cid:image002.jpg@01D5E528.C8F61280"></span><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#93999B'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#212529'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline;box-sizing: border-box'><strong><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#3A4149;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm'>In this new age of remote working, and remote entrepreneurship, South African online community Startup Circles may have got ahead of the game.<o:p></o:p></span></strong></p><p style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#3A4149'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>Launched to help entrepreneurs launch and raise capital, <span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm'>Startup Circles</span> guides people through the ideation, validation and fundraising phases of running a business. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>“We provide weekly guidance and accountability, monthly webinars and coaching sessions aimed at helping aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs to make progress in their ventures. We have world-class mentors and experts who help people launch businesses quickly and cost effectively,” founder Sandras Phiri told Disrupt Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>Startup Circle was launched to address three main challenges for entrepreneurs. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>“Firstly, we found that aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs spend too much money and time building products that nobody buys. Secondly, we also found that world-class coaching and mentorship from people who have actually built startups was very expensive and hard to access,” Phiri said. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>Thirdly, it is hard to access potential investors unless via an introduction from a trusted source. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>“Startup Circles was built to democratise access to the circles of founders, mentors and investors so that anybody with a great idea should have a fair shot at building a company, whether they were in Cape Town or Lilongwe,” said Phiri.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>The platform’s main competition are other communities that offer mentorship and incubation, but Phiri said Startup Circles’ key selling point is that it does not restrict membership so as to serve thousands of people at the same time. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>“Our membership is open to all African countries. Our bringing together founders and entrepreneurs from different countries creates a cross-pollination of ideas and execution that cannot be replicated when working in one geographical location. So far we have mentors from Silicon Valley, Europe, China, Australia and Africa,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>The platform was initially bootstrapped, but has now secured a key partnership with <span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm'>Enygma Ventures</span>, the US-based VC firm founded by award winning entrepreneurs Sarah and Jacob Dusek that last year <span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm'>launched a fund</span> with a focus on investing in women entrepreneurs in the SADC region.The fund <span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm'>made its first investment earlier this month</span>, but Phiri is now likely to be even busier after <span style='border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm'>Startup Circles was also named as partner in a ZAR20 million (US$1 million) fund</span> to support African startups, entrepreneurs and innovators that are building solutions for the post-pandemic world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>Enygma Ventures is expecting to provide seed capital for 20-40 startups and provide mentoring, training and business validation scholarships through Startup Circles, boosting activity on the platform. But Phiri said uptake was already growing steadily. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>“We spent all of the first quarter finishing the product development. We’re now focusing on customer acquisition and delivering lots of value to our members,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>A fully online business, the Startup Circles team – including those at Enygma Ventures – extends across London, Cape Town and Johannesburg, and it has customers across the African continent. The platform charges a subscription fee to entrepreneurs, and is also rolling out short, paid accelerated programmes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>“We had the usual difficulties of iterating and refining the offering and trying to understand what customers really want. Now with the COVID-19 pandemic we decided to help out entrepreneurs who are in lockdown by offering free Startup Circles Friday Social events. These virtual learning and networking events which have been well received,” Phiri said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>COVID-19 may assist the company in providing validation for its model much earlier than it may have otherwise expected.-</span> <span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'>disrupt-africa.com<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:22.3pt;margin-left:0cm;background:white;vertical-align:baseline'><a href="https://disrupt-africa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Enygma-Ventures-Team.jpg" title=""SA’s Startup Circles community offering African entrepreneurs access to remote support, funding" "><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#19232D;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=702 height=336 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image004.jpg@01D61DF7.EBFD9340" alt="https://disrupt-africa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Enygma-Ventures-Team-702x336.jpg"></span></a><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#606569'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><i><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZW'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><i><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZW'>Invest Wisely!</span></i><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZW'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZW'>Bulls n Bears <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZW'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZW'>Telephone: <a href="tel:%2B263%204%202927658" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>+263 4 2927658</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZW'>Cellphone: <a href="tel:%2B263%2077%20344%201674" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>+263 77 344 1674</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;mso-fareast-language:EN-ZW'>Alt. 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