Smartprof, a Moroccan tutoring startup, has received $50,000 in investment after graduating from the third cohort of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) Startgate and Plug and Play Morocco startup competition.
Smartprof, founded in 2021 by Hamza Faiz, Mustapha Faiz, and Ali Faouzi, is an on-demand tutoring software for school-aged pupils.
Kezakoo, a proptech firm, Agenz, a provider of sustainable transportation solutions POGO, and Mytindy, a marketplace for local craftsmen and craftspeople offering handmade products, were among the other startups that took part in the Expo Day.
UM6P Startgate and Plug and Play Morocco (PnP) have spent the last three months mentoring 12 Moroccan startups in an effort to strengthen the country’s developing startup ecosystem amid local and international concerns about an economic downturn and funding cuts.
During the PnP Batch 3 Expo Day in Casablanca, 12 startups showcased their concepts to partners and managers of significant venture capital funds present in Africa.
On Wednesday, July 6, aspiring young entrepreneurs and graduates from the first and second batches in April 2021 and March 2022, such as Chari, Jobop, and WafR, attended the event to learn about new creative concepts in Morocco and provide their support.
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The list of selected startups for this expo comprised both freshly started and reasonably established firms that deliver digital breakthroughs in the domains of education, health, real estate, retail, and tech industry, with a special emphasis on themes connected to the development of smart cities.
Smart Prof, the winner of the Startgate and PnP Batch 3 competitions, got $50,000 for their inventive tutoring marketplace, which connects K-12 kids with tutors pursuing higher education.
According to Aziz El Hachem, North-Africa Director at Plug and Play, “this event is an opportunity for us to look back on what’s been done in the last two years to enable the local startup scene and pursue our ambitions in building an integrated ecosystem that offers concrete opportunities to local talent.”
Yassine Laghzioui, UM6P’s Head of Entrepreneurship and Venturing, stated that the university is “seeking to put Morocco and Africa at the forefront of technology and innovation.”
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“We are putting the current challenges of the African continent as the pillars of our mission statement,” Laghzioui added, noting that the main challenges burdening the continent’s development are food security, sustainable exploitation of natural resources, digital inclusion, and access to health care.
Placing “innovation for Africa” at the heart of UM6P’s work, Laghzioui emphasised that the continent must address additional issues related to the development of the continental startup ecosystem, such as a lack of capital, the dominance of fragmented markets, a lack of quality education, and a lack of infrastructure.
Throughout the exhibition day, the 12 businesses expressed a desire in expanding their operations to Western Africa, particularly Francophone Africa, signalling a significant shift in the Moroccan entrepreneurship sector, which was previously focused on Europe.
Nonetheless, businesses must maintain a “balancing power dynamic” with investors, which necessitates the diversification of investment money, according to Yamawaki.
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PnP reminded new ambitious Moroccan entrepreneurs with creative ideas to apply for Batch 4 before September 15, 2022, as the 12 startups dive deeper into the Moroccan startup ecosystem in the hopes of one day becoming a Moroccan unicorn, a startup valued at $1 billion.
Smartprof tutoring Smartprof tutoring
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh