Casablanca’s Startup ecosystem

5 min readMay 24, 2020

Casablanca Startups Ecosystem — infographic

After spending a great time learning and working in Casablanca with awesome leaders and entrepreneurs I came up with this template that will give, to anyone interested, in-depth insight on how the Moroccan capital city is working to be a leading smart city of the country and the African continent-

This guide will support you in your hard work and perseverance in creating, define, accelerate, or growing your valuable Startup in Casablanca.

Casablanca’s eco-system is moving very fast so we should do the same and keep with the pace in innovating and learning processes to support the development of the city and the country.

If you think that there is something missing or new popped up, please tell us.

Startup Stages

1. Idea Stage

This is where new entrepreneurs get inspired, learn best practices, develop skills, validate ideas, and begin to build their team and product.

Inspire

· Startup Media: Centralized local information, listings, and news. (i.e. startup blogs/ publications/ lists/ FB groups/ newsletters)

· Inspirational Events: Open, inclusive, beginner startup events (i.e. Startup Weekend, idea fairs, and inspirational meetups)

Educate

· Best Practices: Beginner knowledge-sharing events. (i.e. beginner events that serve to educate more than inspire, like Startup Founder 101, etc).

· Training & Feedback: Skill & Idea development. (Ex. boot-camps and comprehensive training programs, like Founder Institute)

Validate

· Team Formation: Resources for teaming up. (i.e. events or other resources that facilitate early-stage recruitment and cofounder matching)

· Build First Product: Hackathons & resources to build. (i.e. hackathons and other builder-focused events and resources)

2. Launch Stage

In this stage, entrepreneurs establish and formalize the company, develop the product, get feedback from customers, and prepare for the next step.

Start

· Establish: Law firms & banks for startups

· Workspace: Co-working and flexible workspaces (note: “official” office space goes in 3.1.a. Infrastructure)

Develop

· Formalize: Accounting, development, and HR for early-stage startups.

· Prepare for Seed: Incubators and advanced mentorship. (i.e. advanced knowledge sharing, later-stage events, and resources)

Launch

· Seed Accelerators: Seed funding mentor programs (Techstars-style programs that provide funding)

· Pitch & Demo: Show local startups for investment (i.e. demo days for companies seeking seed investment)

3. Growth Stage

Here, a startup proves its utility, receives recognition and scales up. This usually requires funding, angels, VCs, and ways to connect them to startups.

Recognition

· Investor Networking: Connect professional investors with founders. (i.e. events or groups that facilitate connections with professional investors)

· Major Media: Mainstream local business press. (i.e. major local or regional publications that frequently champion local businesses)

Funding

· Angels / VCs: Seed-stage investors — Series A

Growth

· Infrastructure: Office space, HR, local business insurance. (i.e. office space/ HR/ insurance providers for capital-rich companies to grow and scale)

· Expansion: Growth accelerators/consultants. (i.e. programs and business consultants for capital-rich companies to grow and scale)

4. Success Stories

Successful homegrown companies that have raised significant institutional funding, employ a large workforce, or have achieved liquidity.

Supporters

To facilitate the steps, every ecosystem needs strong supporters. Below a list of the people who are working hard and smart.

1. Evangelists

Successful local founders who lead the ecosystem & frequently mentor newbies. (i.e. Local leaders who have taken a leadership position, speak at a lot of startup events, mentor all the programs, etc)