MOROCCO – SEAF Morocco Growth Fund (SMGF) has attracted Caisse Marocaine des Retraites (CMR) as a new institutional investor in its capital.
“We are pleased to welcome the Caisse Marocaine des Retraites as a new investor, which will successfully crown the investments made by the fund to date,” commented Meriem Zairi, SEAF’s MENA Regional Director and Managing Director of the SMGF Fund.
Zairi said, “view this investment as a reaffirmation of our investors’ confidence in our investment strategy and the added value that this fund brings to the entrepreneurial ecosystem”.
The Caisse Marocaine des Retraites joins the fund shareholders group made up of La Caisse Centrale de Garantie, BMCE Bank, USAID (via Wise Venture Capital) and the SEAF group.
Mr. Lotfi Boujendar, Director of CMR, commented that “We believe, with conviction, that the Venture Capital market today offers more attractive returns and a real opportunity for institutional investors to contribute to the development and growth of our economy.”
He further explained that “It is in this spirit that the investment in the SEAF Morocco Growth Fund takes place.”
SEAF Morocco Growth Fund is an investment fund regulated by the Moroccan Capital Market Authority (AMMC) with the status of a “Société de Placement Collectif en Capital”.
The Fund’s strategy is to invest in innovative start-ups with high growth potential, targeting the Moroccan and/or international markets at the seed and early stage of their development.
The Fund was created as part of the “Innov Invest Fund (IFI)” which was created by the Caisse Centrale de Garantie to promote innovative entrepreneurship.
SMGF is a subsidiary of the SEAF group and is managed by SEAF Morocco Capital Partners, a management company regulated by the AMMC.
Jennifer Nikolaeff, Director of the General Development Office at USAID/Morocco, stated that “ We are very pleased with the collaboration with SEAF team in Morocco, especially their success in creating and closing the SMGF in record time.”
She further explained that the SEAF team was the pioneer of venture capital investment in SMEs in Morocco.
Launched in September 2018, the SMGF fund seeks to address the lack of funding for innovation and business creation that is a missing element in the value chain of business financing in Morocco.
SMGF is positioned as a catalyst of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Morocco and aims to improve the rate of transformation of entrepreneurial intent into business creation and to accelerate innovative companies in their geographical expansion.
One year after its launch, the fund has made three investments in startups at the forefront of their market.
These firms are: 3Dental, a healthtech specialized in digital dentistry; eDukaty, an edtech specialized in virtual classes, and MeilleurCreditImmo.ma, the country’s first free and 100% online real estate credit broker in Morocco.
