Boosting support for startups | L’Economiste

The National Enterprise Guarantee and Financing Corporation (Société nationale de garantie et de financement de l’entreprise, SNGFE), which operates under its commercial name Tamwilcom, has just launched a call for expressions of interest for the selection of new startup incubators.

The entities that will be selected will be mandated to implement support programs targeting startups and other innovative project leaders who are still at the ideation, incubation, or pre-acceleration stages. This should enable startups to increase their chances of success and to become creators of values and jobs. It should be noted that the acceleration segment will subsequently be the subject of a dedicated financing offer. The call for expressions of interest aims to find around twenty new support entities whose mandate will be to intervene at the level of one of the three stages of development of startups. The incubators that will be selected will have to take up the challenge of contributing to the emergence of approximately 800 startups over the next five years. This is the third such edition released by Tamwilcom . The specifications relating to this new consultation can be downloaded from the https://www.tamwilcom.ma/ website.

Interested persons must apply no later than Monday, July 17 at 4 p.m. with the mention “Pré-sélection des structures d’accompagnement des porteurs de projets et des startups innovants” (“Pre-selection of support structures for project leaders and innovative start-ups”) and this, either at Tamwilcom’s headquarters or through internet. ( [email protected] ).

For a first phase, the SNGFE speaks of pre-selection of the entities whose usual activity is the development of support programs for project leaders and innovative start-ups. The pre-selected operators will then be invited to submit their application to intervene in one of the three phases in the life of startups. Thus, professionals who position themselves on entities which are in the ideation phase will have to provide services intended to structure the idea of an innovative project among the initiators in the form of a PoC (Proof of Concept) and to supervise the design of the innovative product to identify a value proposal.

Support entities specializing in the incubation stage will be tasked with training, advising, and providing logistical support to project leaders to develop a prototype and test its market potential. With regard to the pre-acceleration phase, the entities that are looked for must provide consulting and fundraising assistance services making it possible to market the innovation on a large scale and to achieve the “product – market – fit”.

Entities wishing to present their application have the possibility of submitting any document and reference concerning the support programs developed, the beneficiary start-ups, their achievements, as well as their human and technical resources. The documents in question, which must not date before the year 2019, must enable the SNGFE to verify the adequacy between the activities of the tenderer and those related to one of the three targeted segments and to draw up a list of preselected candidates. The shortlist will be decided on the basis of an evaluation grid based on five criteria (see table). The entities having obtained 4 points out of 5 will be invited to submit their application files which will be sent by the SNGFE within 48 hours after the publication of the list of shortlisted candidates.

Who can apply?

Excluded from the current call for expressions of interest are startups, accountants, consulting and audit firms, investment fund management companies, coworking spaces as well as state-owned enterprises or agencies. On the other hand, the 16 support entities whose partnership with the SNGFE has expired since the end of April 2022 are authorized to submit their applications as part of the current call for expressions of interest. Applications may be submitted in French, Arabic, or English. In case of discrepancies, priority will be given to the French version.

Between 2017 and 2022, more than 500 startups

AS a reminder, the Innov Invest Fund (F2I), managed by the National Enterprise Guarantee and Financing Corporation (Société nationale de garantie et de financement de l’entreprise, SNGFE, formerly known as CCG), was set up to bring an answer to the problem of access to banking resources for innovative startups which are a category of entities having difficulty raising funds, due to the very high risk they represent and their economic model which requires appropriate levers. Hence the creation of the F2I, which provides varied and complementary financing solutions, implemented in partnership with private players in the ecosystem: incubators, clusters, venture capital fund managers, and other stakeholders, depending on the stage of maturity of each project.

From its launch in 2017 until the end of 2022, the F2I offer has been deployed in partnership with 16 certified support entities. This has made it possible to finance more than 500 innovative projects via Innov Idea and Innov Start for a volume of financing exceeding 90 million Dirhams (USD 9 million) over 5 years, i.e. on average 18 million Dirhams (USD 1.8 million) per year.

Markers

• More than 1,300 jobs created excluding startup founders
• More than 35 patents filed, i.e. approximately 12% of patents of Moroccan origin
• More than 250 million (USD 25 million) in turnover, including 20 million Dirhams from exports
• More than 26 million Dirhams (USD 2.6 million) in taxes paid by beneficiaries and venture capital funds
• About twenty more advanced startups invested for tickets (equity interventions on the seed and venture capital segment) totaling more than 180 million Dirhams (USD 18 million) via investment vehicles structured with other investors.
• The F2I portfolio is made up of startups operating in the Greentech, Fintech, MedTech, Retailtech, Agritech, Edtech sectors…
• Projects rolled out in several cities: Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech, Agadir, Tangiers, among others.

Source: Tamwilcom

Hassan EL ARIF