By Daniel Essiet
our Nigerian startups are participating in an international five–day international boot camp which opened this week at BenGuérir, Morocco.
The startups, ColdHub, Farmcrowdy, Social Lender and Foodlocker, were among 16 companies that qualified for IMPULSE, a startup accelerator developed by Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), Morocco.
Impulse, located in El Kelaa of Sraghna, which is about 100km from Marrakesh, was launched last year by UM6P in partnership with the OCP Group and its subsidiary OCP Africa.
Designed with Mass Challenge, a global accelerator organisation, Impulse aims to sustain the ambitious innovation agenda of OCP Group and to accelerate the development of innovative startups in the agritech, biotech, mining tech, materials science and nano engineering verticals that have a proof of concept or a minimum viable product (MVP).
The Programme Manager/Impulse Startup Accelerator, Adnane Alaoui Soulimani, said the boot camp aims at preparing the entrepreneurs for the Demo Day taking place on April 8.
According to him, the zero-equity Impulse Accelerator will offer the tech startups that pitch at the demo day a share of $250 000 in cash prizes.
He said participants of the startup programme would benefit from access to financing through a set of national and international investment funds and business angels.
Startups that take part in the programme will also have access to UM6P’s infrastructure and laboratories, study trips to Boston in the US and Lausanne, Switzerland, as well as a 430m² co-working space.
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In addition, the startups will also benefit from mentorship and coaching from OCP experts, UM6P professors and doctoral students, as well as mentors of the MassChallenge network.
Additional benefits include access to business opportunities via OCP Group, OCP Africa and UM6P networks.
UM6P Secretary General, Hicham El Habti, said: “By launching Impulse, a first of its kind programme, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University takes pride into fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa, for Africa.
In addition to providing talents with access to important funding, Impulse will enable entrepreneurs to access a whole ecosystem composed of UM6P’s research and innovation local and international network. We look forward to Impulse being a springboard for a larger innovation platform initiative involving other corporate partners and aimed at transforming the African entrepreneurial scene.”
Last month, also Morocco hosted the fourth Middle East and North Africa Seedstars Summit for startups.
Seedstars is an investor in emerging markets’ startups. The summit brought together a network of startups, investors, mentors, ambassadors, partners, and over 500 key stakeholders. The event aimed to facilitate business and investment opportunities in the North Africa and Middle-East region.
Seedstars is a Swiss-based private group of companies aiming to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The organisation’s activities cover over 80 emerging ecosystems through various events, such as the Seedstars World Competition, acceleration programmes, and physical hubs called Seedspace, venture capital investments and company building activities.
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