Morocco-BASED Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) has incubated over 500 startups over the past three years.
This was through its various programmes at all stages of maturity: pre-incubation, incubation,acceleration or venture building.
These young entrepreneurs who include Moroccans come from the ecosystems of more than 15 countries.
A statement said several of them were chosen by UM6P to benefit from proximity to its research centres of excellence, students, talent and links with the industrial world.
StartGate, the UM6P start-up campus, hosts 12 programmes support for the launch and development of start-ups.The objective, according to the statement is to create a pipeline of future entrepreneurs.
To increase capacity to absorb more project leaders from Morocco and Africa, StartGate intends to expand over an area of 30,000 m2, juxtaposing the campus of Benguerir from UM6P.
It explained that programmes are developed with national and international partners.
For example, the Explorer programme developed in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) programme- Sandbox, supports project leaders from five Moroccan universities, public and private.
Also, the Moroccan Retail Tech Builder (MRTB), comprising five programmes dedicated to merchants and co-created with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the OCPFoundation has set itself the task of accelerating the digitalisation of the commerce sector in Morocco. More than 40 projects, it added, has been supported to date.
U-Founders, the incubation programme for students, researchers and entrepreneurs has to date supported more than 105 startups on about fifteen verticals.
Apart from this, UM6P is also associated with Plug&Play, the global innovation platform of theSilicon Valley, which accelerates the most mature Moroccan startups and gives them access tomany international investors. UM6P also leverages its two investment funds: UM6P Ventures and Bidra to
invest in future unicorns, mainly in the fields of agriculture, water,mining and energy.
On this occasion, Entrepreneurship & Venturing Director, UM6P, Yassine Laghzioui,
declared: “This step marks a turning point in our contribution to the development of a
innovative national entrepreneurship. It also demonstrates that the culture of innovation is rooted in theMoroccan youth. Because behind our value creation, there is also a community whose
components reflect the spirit of initiative within Moroccan society. 30 per cent of our wearers
projects are women and 50 per cent are students. Entrepreneurship is also a powerful lever
of socio-economic empowerment. “