MOROCCO – Epicerie Verte, a Casablanca-based digital marketplace specializing in allowing producers to sell their local organic products online, has raised US$748,000 from Azur Innovation Fund.
Amine SLIMANI, Founder and Managing Director, said the funds raised from Azur Innovation Fund will enable Epicerie Verte to accelerate its growth both in Morocco and internationally.
With its fundraising, the young company also intends to recruit and attack the European market to promote organic “Made in Morocco”.
Founded in 2017, Epicerie Verte is a 100% online marketplace specializing in organic products. It is an online store where farmers, producers and other sellers of organic products can market their goods.
Its objective is to create a point of intersection between strong demand from customers for local organic products and a growing offer that cannot easily find a distribution channel.
According to Amine Slimani, CEO of Epicerie Verte, the startup plays a big role in the democratization of products from organic farming.
“We realized that there was a very interesting offer in Morocco for organic products.”
Amine SLIMANI – Founder, Epicerie Verte
“We realized that there was a very interesting offer in Morocco for organic products. However, these sellers found it difficult to access a market because there are very few outlets where they can properly display their products,” he said.
“For everything that is selling online it is also quite complicated to manage directly for the sellers. So, we come to play this role of connecting buyers and sellers.”
There are many reasons why the investor preferred to invest in Epicerie Verte, one of which is its product offering which fulfils the green investment mandate of the investor.
The investor was also drawn in by the traction the startup has garnered since its three-year journey. On the marketplace today, there are nearly 90 sellers (cooperatives, manufacturers, farmers, and so on) and over 2,500 product references.
“The start-up intends to further expand its range to increase to 20,000 references within 3 years,” Slimani said.
In 2020, Azur Innovation Management, a subsidiary of Azur Partners launched a US$35 million Innovation Fund to invest in Moroccan startups.
The public-private fund targets Moroccan companies with less than 18 months of activity, “having a proven innovative product / service concept with successful marketing.”
With a lifespan of 10 years, and an investment period of 5 years (extendable by one year), the fund targets innovative Moroccan startups.
The Fund focuses on the renewable energy sectors, Morocco’s global businesses, service platforms and new technologies. The average investment ticket is around US$500,000 (excluding follow-on).
