By Olanrewaju Adesanya
Resolved to reengineering a functional African continent, post COVID-19, HSEVEN Africa’s largest accelerator is launching, “Rise-Up”, “Re-Start” and “Disrupt”, three ambitious incubation and acceleration programs, designed for exceptional entrepreneurs building high-impact startups.
HSEVEN a Morocco based body notes that,”the 4th technological and industrial revolution is transforming the world, and the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated exponentially this transformation.
“This crisis is the tipping point of a new economy: more human, more inclusive, greener, and resolutely technological.
“Startups worldwide played a crucial role in providing concrete solutions to the hundreds of millions of people fighting the crisis and the billions confined people.
“The startups will play a vital role to restart and stimulate the economy, but also to reinvent our world.
“It is time for entrepreneurs and startups of Morocco and Africa to transform our economies by focusing on new homegrown solutions in key impactful sectors: SharedEconomy, MedTech, EdTech, AgriTech, GreenTech, inclusive FinTech and GovTech” said Amine Al-Hazzaz, Founder & CEO of HSEVEN.
According to Al-Hazzaz,the
Rise-Up, Re-Start and Disrupt programs are designed to support exceptional entrepreneurs building high-impact startups, and targets pre-seed, seed and early stage startups with 2 to 5 founders that are eager to impact Africa through innovative services, products and business models.
Access to financing / funding
Rise-Up and Re-Start selected entrepreneurs will have a 200,000 dirhams grant (€18,000), a 500,000 dirhams forgivable loan (€45,000), then an eventual 1.5 (€135,000) to 15 million dirhams (€1,350,000) non-guaranteed loan without a personal guarantee and including a 3-year deferred reimbursement. The funds are provided from the Innov-Invest program of the Caisse Centrale de Garantie (CCG) with the support of the World Bank, and the Banque Centrale Populaire du Maroc.
Disrupt selected startups will benefit from a seed investment of €150,000 at the beginning of the program for 5 to 7% equity, then an eventual investment of €500,000 to €1.5 million at the end of the program. These investments will be granted through a partnership with the venture capital firms Azur Partners and Upline Alternative Investments. The program will benefit from funding of the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) – Triple Jump.
“HSEVEN ambition is to accelerate entrepreneurs and startups that will reshape Africa’s future” said Amine Al-Hazzaz, Founder & CEO of HSEVEN.
The call for applications is now open until June 30, 2020 via the platform www.hseven.co. The selection process will be conducted by HSEVEN team and its community of experts.
Access to HSEVEN ecosystem
The entrepreneurs and startups selected will also be given strategic advice and expertise, access to key networks through HSEVEN partners such as La Banque Centrale Populaire, Fabernovel, Strategy&, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Amazon Web Services and l’Ecole Centrale.
Selected entrepreneurs for Rise-Up and Re-Start incubation program will benefit from 7 Design sprints, 12 Workshops, 24 mentoring sessions, 24 weekly sessions with HSEVEN team, 8,680$ or more of Amazon Web Services.
Startups selected for Disrupt program will benefit from 15 Workshops, 15 mentoring sessions, 15 working sessions with HSEVEN, 50,680$ of Amazon Web services, and ability to connect with national and international companies to co-develop, associate or sell.
Entrepreneurs will have access to a network of more than 350 mentors, influential leaders and partners to gain increasing access to national and international markets and additional investment through 50 VCs interested in Moroccan startups.
During the 3 programs, selected startups will be located at HSEVEN campus, in the heart of the Marina of Casablanca, Morocco.