About us

We are holistic early stage gender-lens investors committed to investing in Africa’s Women entrepreneurs.

Our mission is to drive economic growth and development on the African continent through investing in entrepreneurship development with the hope of contributing to the economic transformation of individuals, communities and regional economies.

What we do

We offer access to

Innovative financing
solutions

Women-enabling
platforms

Entrepreneur development & acceleration through partner platform

Context

Although Africa has the highest rates of female entrepreneurship in the world, the funding gap remains a barrier to achieving full potential.

Currently, women operate over 40% of SMEs in Africa, the African Development Bank has pitted the entire funding gender gap at $42 billion between men and women entrepreneurs.

African GDP could increase 10% by 2025 if the gendergap is narrowed

In Africa, women owned or led businesses received only 2% of funding from VCs (2018).

The average investment for female- or female co-founded companies is half that of male-founded companies.

Almost half (45.8%) of women’s business closure reasons are directly attributed to financial reasons.

Opportunity

Research shows that female-owned businesses consistently out-survive male-owned businesses in many industries. Research has shown that women founded and co-founded companies:

Our Approach

Our unique capabilities are highlighted in a 3-pronged approach:

Research has shown that the biggest obstacle women face when starting and growing any business is access to funding and ability to raise capital. The IFC reports an approximate $320 billion dollar gap in financing for women and that women-owned businesses appear restricted in their growth paths and are therefore skewed towards smaller firms. 

We are the fund managers for:

  • Enygma Ventures Fund: focused on investing in early stage majority women owned businesses in SADC. 
  • Shift Fund focused on investing in entrepreneurs and innovators in Africa creating solutions that will help redefine our post-pandemic world.
  • The Empress Fund: An angel syndicate fund focused on innovative financing solutions for women-owned and women-enabling businesses in SADC in the agri-processing, energy and climate sectors. 

Leaders set the tone, pace and culture of an organisation. Therefore, ensuring that the entrepreneur is developing both their personal leadership capacity and business skills is cardinal to creating a growing enterprise that can scale and remain relevant in dynamic market environments.

Our online platform Startupcircles.ai helps entrepreneurs to build commercially viable businesses and provides them guidance and access to a network of like-minded entrepreneurs and investors. The platform makes the startup journey more enjoyable and less lonely for entrepreneurs.

Visit our online Startup School here: StartupCircles.ai

In this information economy it is easy for investors, policy makers and other key stakeholders looking to invest in entrepreneurship in Africa to get lost in the multitude of information and data. ATG provides research and advisory services in the following areas:

  • Gender-lens investing
  • Funds development and management
  • Entrepreneurship eco-system development

ATG has served clients across Africa, Europe and North America. Projects have included strategy development for gender-lens VC funds, debt funds, gender bonds and eco-system development in various parts of the continent.Download a copy of latest Gender-lens investing project ATG worked on in collaboration with MEDA covering South, East, West and North Africa research here: Download Report

Our Funds

Enygma Fund

USD 10m Seed VC Fund
Women entrepreneur focused
SADC Region
US Based Investors
Ticket: >$100k - 1m

Shift Fund

USD 1m Pre-seed VC Fund
Post-covid Innovation
Africa Wide
US Based Investors
Ticket: >$25k - 100k

Empress Fund

USD 50k Innovative Financing Fund
Women entrepreneur focused
SADC Region
African Syndicate
Ticket: $5k - $50k

Our team

CORE TEAM

Picture1

Lelemba Phiri
Principal and Fund Manager

Gender, development finance, angel investing, public & private sector experience, marketing. PhD Candidate
2

Mary-Ann De Wet
Chief Financial Officer

Finance & strategy, modelling and investments, M & As, tax, compliance and due diligence, regulation MCom. International Tax
3

Trish Nelson
Chief Compliance Officer

Commercial legal advisor, attorney of the high court, contracts law, compliance management, mediator, disputes resolution. LLB
4

Kaleo Maoka
Portfolio
Manager

Portfolio & project management, clients & contracts management, key stakeholder relations, marketing MBA (GIBS)

SUPPORT

Picture2-1

Sandras Phiri

Entrepreneur Education
MBA
6

Bronwyn Felix

Project Management
Dip.PM
Jade

Jade September

Social Media
BA English
Glenn

Glenn Nelson

Financial Models
CA(SA)

ADVISORS

Picture5

Danai Masandu

VC and PE. Investments Relations, Goodwell VC
Picture6

Keith Davies

Innovative Finance and Strategy. CFO, AL Ventures
faith

Faith Mukutu

Risk and Commercial Strategy, CFO, Zambeef PLC. Chairperson & Investor
abigail

Abigail Chimuka

Legal and Compliance, Partner, Abigail and Chama. Legal Counsel & Investor

Contact Us

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Melbourne, Australia
(Sat - Thursday)
(10am - 05 pm)
X
The Fund
Sector: Agnostic
Size: $10m
Stage: Seed
Type: Equity
Ticket: $200k-$1m
Investments to date: 10
Invested to date: $4.4m
Anchor Investors:
Family Office
Domicilium: USA
Fundraising: Yes
Target: $100m
Min. LP Ticket: $250k
Term: 10yrs
Mgmt. Fee: 2.5%
Carry: 20%
Companies invested in:
Playsense
Lupiya
Job Crystal
Black Mamba
Mineral Makeup
Premier Credit
Startup Circles
Brown and Ayo
Koa Academy
Feel Good Health

The Fund
Sector: Agnostic
Size: $1m
Stage: Pre-seed
Type: Equity
Ticket: Standard $25k
Investments to date: 3
Invested to date: $75k
Anchor Investors:
Family Office
Domicilium: USA
Fundraising: Yes
Target: $10m
Min. Angel Ticket: $5k
Term: 10yrs
Mgmt. Fee:10% capped@$1k
Carry: 1% equity/deal
Companies invested in:
Aya
Koa Academy
Candorlife
The Fund
Sector: Agri, Energy,
Climate, Financial services
Size: $350k
Stage: Pre-seed
Type: Innovative finance
Ticket: $10k-$30k
Investments to date: 7
Invested to date: $100k
Anchor Investors: Angels
and Shell Foundation
Domicilium: Mauritius
Fundraising: Yes
Target: $5m
Min. Angel Ticket: $1k
Term: Evergreen
Mgmt Fee: Interest upside
Companies invested in:
Premier Credit
Sage Valley
Polka Dot
iVitals
Maluba TV
Mo's Crib
Notto