24 Jun SEAF Morocco Growth Fund invests in SOS Credit, an online financial services brokerage firm
June 24th, 2019
Morocco – The SEAF Morocco Growth Fund (SMGF), an investment fund targeting innovative Morocco-based companies with high growth potential, is pleased to announce it has finalized its third investment, investing in SOS Credit, an online financial services broker providing its clients with access to the best available offers, and a tailor-made advisory service.
SOS Credit, an innovative startup in the online brokerage of mortgage-related products and services
SOS Credit is an online startup offering mortgage brokerage services that provide for a unique client experience by shopping for mortgage-related financial products in Morocco. The Company has built a digital service helping clients obtain tailor-made financial advice and compare different offers for free. The startup leverages the latest technology to involve all stakeholders in the financial process and ensure real-time monitoring of the progress made through a secure user space.
SOS Credit established partnerships with major banks in the market and provided its clients with the most competitive offers, particularly residential mortgages, resulting in high growth during the 2017-2018 period. The Fund will use its investment to support and accelerate this growth and position the startup as a leader in the online brokerage of financial products.
The SEAF Morocco team with the SOS founder and counsels
Founder with digital marketing expertise and ventures experience
After receiving training in finance, digital marketing, and a professional career in investment banking and consulting firms, Mr. Bachir Ben Slimane moved to Morocco to create several digital marketing companies. These companies held leading key accounts in the banking, insurance, real estate, consumer products, and international fields.
Ben Slimane followed this success with the founding of SOS Credit, the first free, online-only brokerage service with tailor-made advisory services that highlight the best financial options suited to each client, according to their personal situation. SOS Credit aims to provide access to financial services to a wider population through improved customer experience. The Company has focused especially on providing consumers long excluded from obtaining mortgage finance on reasonable terms with digitized services and allowing consumers to compare rates across a number of Moroccan banks while completing the paperwork for consideration both quickly and accurately. The Moroccan mortgage market is significantly underpenetrated compared with other markets of similar population and income levels.
“We have the pleasure and honor to be among the first startups invested in by the SEAF Morocco Growth Fund. This has been made possible thanks to the ‘Innov Invest’ program, which has attracted an internationally renowned investment fund, SEAF, dedicated to supporting innovative, early-stage companies and startups. This partnership will enable us to achieve our vision of emerging as a leader in the online brokerage of financial products, whether traditional or sharia-compliant. This effort began in Morocco through soscreditimmo.ma, with the ambition of exploring other international markets by 2020.” commented Ben Slimane, founder, and CEO of SOS Credit.
“We are thrilled to welcome and support SOS Credit, a company that has already achieved several milestones, and one which facilitates access to efficient, high-quality financial services for a large part of the population, previously with limited access to mortgage finance. Thanks to SOS Credit, this widely needed service is free,” said Ms. Meriem Zairi, Managing Director of the SEAF Morocco Growth Fund.
SOS Credit’s Social Impact
SEAF has invested in SOS Credit not only for its innovative business line and prospects for high growth but also for the significant potential impact it will have on Moroccan society. SEAF aligns its impact framework with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and SOS Credit contributes to three distinct Goals.
SDG #8 – Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all: While the Company is providing a direct benefit to Moroccan residents seeking to buy housing, it is also contributing to the rapid increase in the mortgage finance market. With the housing market as a driving force in the Moroccan economy, representing roughly one fourth of the country’s economy in 2017 but still significantly below its potential as a result of the present inefficiencies in the mortgage market, the company aims to play a key role in fostering economic growth and creating employment in Morocco’s construction industry.
SDG #9 – Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation: SOS’ innovative business model is providing Morocco’s first free, online-only financial service that promotes financial inclusion while challenging some of the country’s long-standing industry norms. SOS will accelerate the evolution of a data-driven, digital mortgage experience in Morocco.
SDG #10 – Reduce inequality within and among countries: SOS will help provide information and transparency regarding the mortgage market to Moroccans. The Company’s online model has the ability to educate consumers in rural areas that might not have the resources necessary to become financially independent from one’s family and will serve as a model for other businesses seeking to make inroads in underserved regions.
About SEAF Morocco Growth Fund
SEAF Morocco Growth Fund (SMGF) is an investment fund whose strategy is to invest in seed to early-stage innovative companies with high growth potential in Morocco and internationally. The fund investors are Caisse Centrale de Garantie, BMCE, Wise Venture Capital and the SEAF group. The fund is part of the Innov Invest program managed by the Moroccan Caisse Centrale de Garantie (CCG) to promote entrepreneurship and inclusive economic growth in Morocco. SMGF is managed by SEAF Morocco Capital Partners, a management company approved by the Moroccan Market Authority (AMMC) and the Moroccan subsidiary of SEAF. The SMGF now holds three portfolio companies. The first investment was 3Dental, a leading Moroccan HealthTech, specializing in digital dentistry surgical solutions. The second investment was eDukaty, a Moroccan Edtech specializing in virtual classrooms.
About SEAF
SEAF is a global fund management group headquartered in Washington, DC that invests in emerging markets and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging and frontier markets, seeking both financial returns and impact on economic and social development and providing technical assistance to improve the performance of the enterprises. SEAF has more than 30 years of experience with 38 funds (with committed capital of $1.1 billion) in 28 countries with more than 400 investments and 350 exits. SEAF also supports 13 Centers for Entrepreneurship and Development (CEED) around the world (www.ceed-global.org), including Morocco, providing training, mentoring, professional networks and global access to entrepreneur-run businesses. www.seaf.com