Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or a venture by collecting small amounts of money by a large amount of people, typically through the Internet. In Morocco, the following crowd funding opportunities exist:

• ZooMaal – Morocco is a crowd funding website specially designed for the Arab world. The website allows to register your idea in order to raise funds for it.
• Aflamnah is a crowd funding website particularly for the film industry where creative filmmakers can register their idea with the purpose of finding the funds to realize it.

A global list of crowd funding websites is available here.

A list of the top crowd funding websites is available here.

Angel investments

Angel investments are typically the earliest equity investment in startup companies. Angel investors are almost always wealth individuals and commonly band together in investor networks. Usually, those networks are based on regionally, industry, or academic affiliation.

• Morocco Angel Investors is a website that provides a list of Morrocan angel investors.

Venture capital

Venture capitalis money invested in a project in which there is a substantial element at risk, typically a new or expanding business.

• Venture Capital in the MENA Region.

Government schemes

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with funding from the European Union, the EBRD Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) Multi-Donor Account and the SEMED cooperation funds account, has helped 110 enterprises in Morocco to access business advice since the end of 2012.

Other funding opportunities

• CEED, a global program of entrepreneurship support from SEAF (the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds), is active in Morocco
• Imitiaz is a direct financial support program designed by the state to prop up projects of high potential Small and Medium Enterprises
• As part of the Emergence Pact strategy, the state has set up three public/private investment funds: Venture Capital, Capital Development and Capital Transmission.
• Faro, the seed capital, development and orientation fund was launched on 27 May 2010 in the context of the Union for the Mediterranean to boost the development of innovation on both sides of the Mediterranean.
• The OCP Innovation Fund for Agriculture is an investment fund designed to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the agriculture and agro-business sectors.
• Attiajriwafa Bank, BMCE Bank and Banque Centrale Populaire have mobilized more than MAD 1 billion to establish an innovative financing instrument, Foncière Emergence, enabling investors wishing to settle in an integrated industrial platform to benefit from an advantageous rental offer
• The Centre Marocain de l’Innovation (CMI) offers different programs to invest in early-stage or expansion phase enterprises.

Useful Links

• The following link lists investment funds in Morocco, including private banks, NGOs and government plans.