Moharik started as the place to discover Morocco's startups. The next step is to build them. This is the working plan for the Moharik Incubator — the deal, the economics, the legal structure, and the path from a first pilot batch to a real venture fund. Unlike our vision piece, this one keeps the real numbers in.
The deal
The headline is simple: Moharik invests roughly $20–30K per startup for about 7% equity. At these ticket sizes, 5–8% is the standard micro-accelerator range — YC's classic deal was $125K for 7%, and because Moroccan pre-seed valuations are far lower than US ones, ~$20K for ~6–7% is defensible.
The economics at $10–30K tickets
Say a batch of 8 startups at an average of $20K: that's $160K (~1.6M MAD) of investment capital per batch. Run two batches a year and you need ~3M MAD/year in tickets, plus operating costs. If you stay lean — you already have Technopark space, Moharik as the funnel, and mentors who'll show up free early on — ops can be under 1M MAD/year with a 2-person team. So the whole thing runs on roughly 4M MAD/year, versus needing to raise 50–100M for a fund. Much more accessible.
The four-year capital sketch
The early planning numbers (indicative, still being refined): ~$30K per startup for 7%, with a growing annual envelope and on-site accommodation for founders.
- Year 1: 450K in tickets + 50 accommodation places
- Year 2: 350K in tickets + 50 accommodation places
- Year 3: 550K in tickets + 50 accommodation places
- Year 4: 650K in tickets + 50 accommodation places
The legal structure: why this can launch in months, not years
One legal note: US-style SAFEs don't map cleanly onto Moroccan law, so local programs typically use convertible notes (obligations convertibles) or invest via a holding — or have startups flip to an offshore topco. It's worth a session with a lawyer who's done it for other Moroccan programs.
The big advantage of this path: investing your own balance sheet through a holding company (SA/SAS) doesn't require the AMMC agrément that a pooled fund does. The heavy regulatory machinery only kicks in when you manage other people's pooled money. So the incubator can launch in months, not years.
Where the money comes from
Three realistic sources beyond your own capital:
- Corporate sponsors — banks, telecoms, and insurers in Morocco actively sponsor startup programs for visibility and innovation pipeline.
- Public programs — Tamwilcom's Innov Invest ecosystem supports accredited incubation structures, and Digital Morocco 2030 money is flowing toward exactly this.
- A small syndicate of angels who co-invest alongside your tickets — which quietly starts building your LP base for the future fund.
Milestones
Start with a pilot batch of 3–5 startups pulled straight from Moharik's ~30 projects — you already know which ones are strongest. Run a 3-month program, put real money in even if it's $10K each, and end with a demo day that Casablanca/Rabat investors actually attend.
Then: batch 2 with outside applicants (the pilot is your proof), get 1–2 corporate sponsors to cover ops, and after 3–4 batches you'll have 25–30 portfolio companies with markup data. That portfolio performance — plus the fact that every good Moroccan pre-seed startup now applies to you first — is precisely the pitch that unlocks Tamwilcom, the Mohammed VI Fund, and DFI money for Fund I in years 3–5.
The bottom line
A lean incubator on ~4M MAD/year, launched through a holding company in months, funded by sponsors and public programs, and designed from day one to graduate into a fund. Moharik already owns the funnel — this is how we turn it into a portfolio.