Tech in Africa
Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) is among the top academic and research institutions that have teamed with Plug and Play to launch an Open Innovation Hub within Morocco. The initiative is supported by the OCP Group and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University.
Morocco will be the Plug and Play’s first office within the continent as they aspire to transform the country into a premiere startup destination across the nation. Plug n Play Morocco has a launch scheduled for January 2021 where they will focus on Smart Cities. Startups can submit their applications here.
Plug and Play Morocco is the first external program to participate in ‘StartGate’ a new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Platform (UM6P). This platform will host acceleration and incubation programs to create a fully-fledged startup environment within UM6P’s ecosystem.
According to the website, the startups Plug n Play Morocco Accelerator is looking for:
- B2B and B2C startups
- Evidence of ‘significant’ business growth
- The leadership team of experienced, Diverse, and focused individuals.
- Desire to innovate and scale across Africa
- Great technology
- Value-driven market product
Areas of central focus by the programme are mobility and IoT, smart buildings, shared economy, AI & Big data, energy, edtech, logistics and healthtech.
According to a statement released during the press release, Michael Olmstead said, “This partnership with Mohammed VI Polytechnic University will give startups an exciting opportunity to meet and interact with leading players in Morocco.”
The StartGate platform Manager, Sarrah Cherif d’Ouezzan described the partnership as a the right “support” to “accelerating our plans to attract entrepreneurs and startups from Morocco and abroad.”
Plug and Play operates across 30 different cities with offices in 5 continents – Africa now being one of them. You can find out more about the Plug n Play accelerator program here.
