CROWDFUNDING
COLLABORATIVE FINANCE
HAPPY SMALA'S COMMITMENT
happy smala has operated in the crowdfunding domain in Morocco, Africa, and the Middle East since 2014. We began with the launch of smala & co, the first crowdfunding platform for high-impact African projects.
A crowdfunding campaign is effectively a communication campaign that needs preparation to improve its chances of success. The experts at happy smala have developed a methodology to accompany leaders of all types of projects through all types of crowdfunding, that is based on the effectiveness and the strength of mobilizing a crowd to attain contributors.
Due to the legislative restrictions on crowdfunding in Morocco in 2014, smala & co was legally based in France, but operated in Morocco. In parallel, with its team's expertise, happy smala joined a working group to draft and advocate for crowdfunding legislation in Morocco. This group assembled players in the ecosystem, regulators, and lawyers who worked pro bono to help crowdfunding legislation to see the light of day in Morocco.
After smala & co, happy smala launched Wuluj with Moroccan Center for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship, an online presale platform for entrepreneurs innovating in the MENA region. Wuluj is a go-to-market booster that helps entrepreneurs reach economies of scale by preselling their products and services to their clients. Rewards are generally delivered a few weeks after the end of the campaign. This process allows entrepreneurs with a prototype to test their products with their customers and validate market needs.
Always exploring, the happy smala team took inspiration from existing collaborative models to launch CIWA in 2018. CIWA is a digital solution for securing and managing circular lending (called Dar't in Morocco). It lets a group of people mutually support each other with credit and/or saving needs.
In 2019, the efforts of the group working on the crowdfunding legislation bore fruit when the Moroccan Government Council took interest in the bill and proposed it for a vote at a session of parliament. In January 2020, the House of Representatives voted "yes" on the crowdfunding bill. The parliamentarians were accompanied through the process by the teams of SimSim - Participation Citoyenne, happy smala, and the stakeholders of the ecosystem.
OUR EXPERTISE
Medi 1 TV:
Crowdfunding: Morocco Gets Up to Date
(Crowdfunding : Le Maroc se met à la page)
Arnaud Pinier
BBN S2 - Ep 4 - The A to Z of Crowdfunding in Morocco
Arnaud Pinier
Crowd Day
(Journée du Crowdfunding)
happy smala - MCISE
le360:
Entrepreneurship: Crowdfunding for Dummies
(Entrepreneuriat: Le crowdfunding pour les nuls...)
Oumel Ghit Guelzim
General Crowdfunding Presentation (in Darija)
Oumel Ghit Guelzim
Crowdfunding, What is Morocco's Future?
(Le crowdfunding, quel futur pour le Maroc ?)
Eric Asmar
FAQ
Everything about crowdfunding
What is collaborative financing or crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding is an alternative means of financing, a method that permits enterprises, startups, individuals, or NGOs to call on the greater public to finance a project from a web platform.
How does it work?
Crowdfunding is a mechanism that permits the collection of funds, generally small amounts, from the greater public. The call for financing is done by a description of the specific project through an online platform that collects the funds for the project leader.
Collaborative finance, participative finance. What's the difference?
The two terms are variations of the term crowdfunding. In Morocco, participative finance is a term dedicated to Islamic finance, so Islamic banks are called participative banks. Collaborative finance is the term reserved for crowdfunding in Moroccan law.
What are some examples of crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding existed several centuries before the start of the digital era.
What are the types of crowdfunding ?
What are the advantages of crowdfunding?
Depending on the type of crowdfunding chosen by the project leader, this kind of financing can have several advantages:
Do Moroccan crowdfunding platforms exist?
Is this mode of financing adequate for all entrepreneurs?
Crowdfunding is a very flexible means of financing, limited only by the will of the communities that want to support the project. That said, it is more adapted to B2C projects, those that target individuals. Gathering small sums from many people, "backers" in our jargon, is easier to achieve with individuals than with companies.
In our experience, cultural and creative projects, like fashion and accessories, music, books, and comics, generate a lot of interest from Moroccans. Charitable and humanitarian projects, like annual back-to-school campaigns for school supplies, are equally supported by the greater public. New collaborative lending and investing markets are developing quickly in the Middle East and we find that they could become a substantial means of financing for SMEs.
How do crowdfunding platforms work?
A crowdfunding platform recruits projects to promote with defined fundraising objectives. These projects, thanks to intensive communication campaigns, convince backers to contribute to a campaign that has a limited duration (15-60 days on average). If the platform uses the "all-or-nothing" model, the project must meet or surpass its funding goal to obtain the funds. Otherwise, they get whatever amount they have raised. The platform receives a percentage of the sum collected (5-10% on average) if the campaign succeeds.
At what stage can an entrepreneur launch a crowdfunding campaign?
This depends on the type of project and the type of financing being sought, but in general, an entrepreneur can launch a presale campaign as soon as he/she has a complete prototype of their product or service and a plan to produce enough to satisfy the orders of their community of backers.
Before launching a collaborative lending or investment campaign, the project must already be in the commercialization phase and see growth: since the financing amounts are more substantial, so are the expectations of the backers.
What are the principle stages of a crowdfunding campaign launch?
Is there a law governing crowdfunding in Morocco?
Bill 15.18, a Moroccan bill of collaborative financing and crowdfunding, was unanimously voted in January 2020 by the House of Representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco. A second stage of validation remains to be put into effect by the House of Councillors of the Kingdom of Morocco.
happy smala ©2020 - head office Jean Jaurès, Quartier Gauthier - Casablanca Morocco