The call for applications is open to any startup based in Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia or Libya that has been operating for over 18 months in one of the following areas: e-health, climate, mobility, agritech, social economy and financial inclusion.
As a result of the work done during the preparatory forums for the Summit of the Two Shores and with the support of the French Development Agency, EMERGING Mediterranean, created by Samir Abdelkrim in 2020, aims to increase the impact of Mediterranean startups that help their societies become more resilient. After the first year of the programme in 2020 underlined a strong demand for support from entrepreneurs in the Mediterranean, EMERGING Mediterranean is launching its second call for applications to identify, accelerate and publicise the technological gems of Tech For Good in Northern Africa: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia. Project leaders have until June 27, 2021 to submit their applications.
This call for applications marks the start of the second cycle of the EMERGING Mediterranean programme. There will be many highlights throughout the year to open the debate, promote the high-impact Mediterranean community and highlight civil society recommendations about which measures should implemented to make the Mediterranean one of the main global Tech for Good hubs.
Samir ABDELKRIM, founder of EMERGING Valley, EMERGING Mediterranean and author of Startup Lions shares this with us: “We created EMERGING Mediterranean – the same line of thought as EMERGING Valley but applied to the Mediterranean basin – because we are convinced that this region is a land of technological innovation and resilience in its own right. The South Shore of the Mediterranean is overflowing with entrepreneurs working to impact and solve the problems of their society while creating a network of essential social services with the help of digital technology such as education, environment, female entrepreneurship, health, agriculture, social economy, financial inclusion, etc. Identifying, supporting and giving them every chance to convince investors and donors to scale up faster is a major challenge. The Mediterranean has enough talent to deserve its place in the global tech forum. However, this can only be achieved with tailor-made capacity building programmes focused on Mediterranean issues, the support of a coalition of multisector players based on national and international ecosystem stakeholders and the implementation of favourable legislation and Startup Acts.”
The first edition blew all the expectations out of the water.
The 2020 cycle of EMERGING Mediterranean demonstrated how relevant the programme is by how many startups wanted to get involved (227 applications received in just one month, nearly a third of which from women), the success of the BootCamp of the 2 Shores, the high levels of enthusiasm from entrepreneurs on the ground and the mobilisation of decision-makers and key players in Tech For Good in the Mediterranean during the Digital Summit in December 2020. “I would like to pay tribute to EMERGING Mediterranean’s inclusive approach which aims to help change-oriented entrepreneurs network in the Mediterranean. The first results of this dynamic initiative pave the way for concrete action in support of entrepreneurship, resilience and Tech For Good in the Mediterranean”, declared Ambassador Karim AMELLAL, Interministerial Delegate for the Mediterranean during his inaugural speech at the EMERGING Mediterranean Digital Summit in 2020.
Aminetou SY, Co-Founder of Daaddo VDP and winner of EMERGING Mediterranean 2020 for Mauritania had this to say about her participation in the 2020 programme: “EMERGING Mediterranean is a very rich programme that is adapted to African entrepreneurs, develops a high-quality network and has coaches that were willing to continue advising us even after the end of the event. The EMERGING Mediterranean programme has helped us up our game and refine our product by developing a better market penetration strategy.”
An even more promising 2021 cycle to identify and scale up the highest-impact projects led by entrepreneurs in Northern Africa
After this successful first pilot cycle, 2021 will continue ramping up EMERGING Mediterranean before revealing the programme in 2022 that will be presented during the Mediterranean presidential high point of the dialogue of the two shores in November in Marseille, in coordination with partners from MEAE (DiMed) and the FDA.
Just as in 2020, EMERGING Mediterranean is offering startups 5 key topics of Tech For Good: Social and financial inclusion, Mobility, AgriTech, e-Health and Climate. Female entrepreneurship will also be showcased even more than during the 2020 programme.
Committees from the five countries in the EMERGING Mediterranean programme will determine the six most promising startups for their country. These 30 fledgling companies will participate in the BootCamp of the 2 Shores from July 9 to 11, 2021, live from Casablanca. This BootCamp is designed to respond to the issues of the 30 pre-selected startups. It will combine intensive 72-hour coaching sessions with top-level experts and mentors – including researchers, entrepreneurs and innovation professionals – with a series of highly inspiring conferences. The event will culminate with a Pitch Session to pre-select the 10 finalist startups – two for each country.
Olfa KILANI, Founder of Kyto-Prod and winner of EMERGING Mediterranean for Tunisia: “Since the EMERGING Mediterranean Bootcamp of the 2 Shores, I have been using the pitch model recommended by the programme and I now swear by it! I feel very comfortable with it and now convince my audience without even breaking a sweat. EMERGING Mediterranean offers quality training, numerous networking opportunities and great international visibility”.
From July to August 2021, the ten finalists will take part in training courses as part of a Summer Startup Clinic on individual property or pitch preparation with several partners of EMERGING Mediterranean. At the beginning of September 2021, they will then pitch in front of a Final Jury that will choose the 5 winners (one per country).
The five winners of EMERGING Mediterranean 2021 will benefit from the following package:
- Exceptional mentoring from the EMERGING Mediterranean ecosystem
- A place on the highly prized Social & Inclusive Business Camp support programme
- Visibility in the dialogue between the 2 shores
- A Demo Day in front of a panel of high-impact investors and technical support
- Support with visibility for their own national media and pan-African media
- A full pass to EMERGING Valley
- A support grant of 5000 euros
Project leaders have until June 27, 2021 to apply to the EMERGING Mediterranean programme at the following link: https://www.f6s.com/emerging-mediterranean-apply/apply
By 2025, EMERGING Mediterranean aims to accelerate over 100 high-impact leaders in the Mediterranean region. There will also be a section dedicated exclusively to female entrepreneurship during the next EMERGING Mediterranean cycles in order to bring out Women Role Models made in the Mediterranean. “We want to help support and accelerate the Mediterranean champions of tomorrow, inspire future generations and strengthen the link and different synergies between Africa and Europe”, concludes Samir Abdelkrim.
