Report: Morocco Has Africa’s Sixth Best Startup Ecosystem

Rabat – With Moroccan startups recording all-time high funding in 2021, Morocco’s ecosystem has emerged as a leading regional example and ranked sixth in Africa and second in North Africa in the latest global startup ecosystem index for 2022.

The Moroccan ranking, according to the Tel-Aviv-based StartupBlink, improved by five positions on the African continent due to the country’s “affordable and stable” ecosystem for entrepreneurs and startups, particularly in the software and data, ecommerce and retail, as well as social and leisure sectors.

The increase in the number of young and high-quality Moroccan freelancers is set to help the North African country become a “strong innovation hub,” noted StartupBlink, explaining how Morocco’s improved global ranking “has seen an impressive increase of 16 positions” to reach 79th worldwide.

As the Moroccan startup ecosystem demonstrates growth despite local challenges, three Moroccan cities were featured in the 2022 index: Casablanca, Rabat, and Agadir.

Casablanca, Morocco’s largest economic hub, has improved its global ranking to settle at 325th position in 2022, up by 39 spots from its 2021 ranking. Casablanca notably came 7th in Africa and 2nd in North Africa this year, taking over Tunis’ place.

Still, Rabat and Agadir struggled to keep up with Casablanca’s growth as they ended up at 721st and 991st globally, down by 167 and 138 places compared to last year.

The Moroccan startup ecosystem has over the past years recorded interesting growth despite the recent economic crises induced by the COVID pandemic and exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

Yet, the latest index found that the Moroccan system is facing obstacles related to low access to education and healthcare, inadequate funding and legislation, as well as gender inequality.

The index also reported that Moroccan startups are in need of international funds despite the existence of local government-backed initiatives and funds such as the Maroc Numeric Fund, Innov Invest Fund, Maroc PME, and Morocco Tech. The NGO startup Maroc was also referred to in the report due to its crucial role in providing guidance and support to local entrepreneurs and people with startup ideas.

StartupBlink issued its global index ranking based on its assessment of the quality and quantity of local startups as well as the business environment.

The index notably compared Moroccan performance to the ones of 1,000 cities and 100 countries featured in the study. StartupBlink further established a global ecosystem map that sampled 31 Moroccan startups, 1 coworking space, and two organizations.

The map placed Morocco behind South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Mauritius in Africa, while Israel and UAE topped the regional ranking for the Middle East and Africa region with 13 Israeli and 3 Emirati cities featured in the list.

Worldwide, Chinese and Indian cities dominated the top 20 cities chart with 7 and 5 entries each. Beijing headed the global list, and was followed by Shanghai, Bangalore, New Delhi, and Tokyo.