This article was automatically translated from HIBAPRESS, the Arabic version:
Hibapress
Mohammed VI Polytechnique University (UM6P) inaugurated its establishment at “Station F” on Thursday, the largest startup campus in the world, based in Paris.
This event also marked the launch of “Nextafrica”, the acceleration program carried by the UM6P at “Station F”, where the University will have a dedicated space of more than 40 workstations.
The first transcontinental Europe-Africa acceleration program dedicated to the Greentech, Agritech and Healthtech sectors, “Nextafrica” offers a hybrid approach combining “Station F” immersion and access to UM6P infrastructure in Morocco to develop, test and structure their innovations.
“The idea of this program is to support a selection of startups chosen on relevant themes for UM6P activities, for the development of Morocco and Africa, in the fields of health and agriculture in particular, from a very innovative and peak angle around artificial intelligence and data,” said Fahd Benkirane, Director General of UM6P France.
He said that “Nextafrica” reflects “our ambition to create an ecosystem where African and European startups collaborate, innovate and grow together”.
“Thanks to our presence at Station F and the anchoring of the UM6P in Africa, we offer entrepreneurs a unique framework to accelerate their development and meet the technological and societal challenges of tomorrow,” said Benkirane.
The CEO of the UM6P France also highlighted the importance of this inauguration day-placed under the theme “Innovate together: a bridge between Europe and Africa to transform the future”-for the UM6P and for the Moroccan-French and Afro-European cooperation, which passes through talents and entrepreneurs connecting the two banks.
“With a focus on climate and health, NextAfrica will offer a unique experience to startups with exceptional resources and an international network,” said video projected during the event, the director of “Station F”, Roxanne Varza.
Welcoming with “enthusiasm” the UM6P within “Station F”, Ms. Varza said: “Together, we are strengthening the link between Europe and Africa”.
Lamia Hanafi, innovation and entrepreneurship manager at UM6P France and founder of “Nextafrica”, said that this program connecting the UM6P and the F station aims to create innovation bridges between additional ecosystems to accelerate the growth of African and European startups thanks to solid networks turned to the future.
It is also a question of highlighting African diasporas and any international player interested in the African market, as a catalyst for new initiatives and gateways between Europe and Africa, she said.
For six months, the startups selected as part of this program will benefit from an advanced entrepreneurial environment at “Station F”, while having access to the advanced technological infrastructure of the UM6P via “Startgate”, its campus dedicated to startups. They will also be supported by a network of African and European mentors, as well as by strategic connection with investors and industrial partners.
In this dynamic, “UM6P Ventures”, an investment fund of the university, will also establish its presence at “Station F”, thus facilitating access to financing for startups and creating synergies between European and African venture capital ecosystems.
“By alternating between Station F and Startgate, startups will benefit from a double immersion: opening on Europe and anchoring in an African innovation hub,” said Yassine Laghzioui, director of entrepreneurship and venturing UM6P and CEO “UM6P Ventures”.
This initiative reflects the vision of the UM6P whose objective is to connect talents, infrastructures and capital to bring out the next African technological scale-ups, he noted.
For him, “the objective goes beyond support: it is a question of creating the conditions to validate their technology, accelerate their marketing and lift the necessary funds in order to scaler and reach key Milestones in development and traction”.
The event was also an opportunity to present the first cohort “Nextafrica”, made up of twelve promising startups from the two continents. These are divided into two verticals: Healthtech, represented by the Pelican HEALTH, Sensebiotk, VG2D Pharma, Inn’Pulse, NeuralTeks, Blocreg Solutions, Iavicenna and Rosetta Omics; and Agritech, represented by Sand To Green, Istya, Agrosfer and Irwise.
