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Seedstars World, the largest seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, brought its Morocco round to a successful close during Seedstars Casablanca. The event took place last Friday, at LaFactory, and 7 selected startups were invited to present their companies in front of the local jury panel.

The local winner, Weego, a collaborative app that allows all its users to move easily with public transit, was named “Best Startup in Morocco” for its innovative solution. “I've been following every edition of Seedstars for 3 years now, and I never imagined that it would be up to me to win the regional summit and represent my whole homeland. Being elected among the 8 most promising startups in Morocco was enough for me, but Seedstars gave me a chance to compete with other regional champions and Weego is ready to take up the challenge” explains Saad Jittou, CEO of Weego.

As a part of the prize, Weego will be participating at the Seedstars Summit, which takes place in Switzerland, in April 2019. It is a weeklong training program, with the opportunity to meet the 65+ winners from other fast growing economies, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. The final day of the Summit is dedicated to pitching in front of an audience of more than 1000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to USD 1 million in equity investment and other prizes.

Seedstars Casablanca also featured Zakaria Ghassouli, CEO of Avito.ma and Mehdi Alaoui, Founder and CEO of LaFactory, who discussed The Role of Corporates in supporting the Entrepreneurship ecosystem in Morocco. The event was organized with Seedstars World’s local partners OCP Group and Avito.ma. The event attracted interest from over 75 startups, and around 100 attendees.

Popaddress, with its marketplace for renting short term retail spaces, came second and Zelij Invent, who produce construction products such as pavers and floor tiles using a new formula based on 80% plastic waste, grabbed the last spot in the top 3. The other startups invited to pitch were:

• Indatacore: SkyAnalytics is solution based on data science, document analysis and facial biometric recognition.
• Medtrucks: makes health reachable for all by deploying medical mobile units and mapping tools.
• UnitedCoin: Banks make billions of dollars a year using your money. You receive nothing. UnitedCoin is bank services with monthly member rewards.
• Valenvi: We provide eco friendly solutions to manage and recycle waste at offices and we design and manufacturer recycling bins

After this stop at Morocco, Omar Barakat, Associate for MENA at Seedstars, says The Moroccon entrepreneurial ecosystem is flourishing, our finalists and other startups are developing high-tech solutions for painful local problems, which surpases what you’d expect from such a nascent ecosystem.

Continuing on its world tour of fast-growing startup scenes in emerging markets, Seedstars World’s next stop is Amman at The Tank, to select the best startup in Jordan. Seedstars World is looking for smart startups that solve regional issues and/or develop profitable products for the global market.