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About Explorer

Explorer Innovation Fund is a program (in collaboration with MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund) that provides a personalized educational and business experience for innovators and entrepreneurs from the UM6P, GEP, MASCIR, 1337, YouCode, Cadi Ayyad, Hassan II, Mohammed V, and Al Akhawayn community (students, researchers, and postdocs) sowing the seeds for a real venture. The Explorer program provides, where applicable, seed resources for each team in the range of (5000 MAD to 250.000 MAD); being matched with globally and locally experienced mentors with knowledge of a vast array of technologies, businesses, and disciplines; and ushering the ventures through their various stages including business plans, customer discovery, early product definition, technology development, intellectual property, and legal structure. The Explorer program is a community of diverse innovators and entrepreneurs eager to impact the Moroccan, African, and/or Global entrepreneurship ecosystem and advance business, technology, product, and social endeavors in those systems. The Explorer program believes in the philosophy of learning by doing, need-based learning, and open access. The culmination of cohorts that last 4-5 months each is an Explorer showcase where groups can put their businesses on display and an opportunity to pitch to a funding board.

About UM6P

Mohammed VI Polytechnic University is a hub of education, research, innovation and entrepreneurship, aspiring to become a solid bridge of knowledge between Morocco, Africa and the world. Located in the “Mohammed VI Green City” in Benguerir, near Marrakech, UM6P applies a “learning by doing” approach and develops sound partnerships with world-wide class universities, to promote leadership and training in focused research areas. By contributing to the training of a new generation of Moroccan and African researchers, entrepreneurs and leaders, UM6P is committed to positioning Morocco as a country at the forefront of technology and human Sciences. More information about UM6P are available on

About UM6P Ventures

The Explorer program is sponsored by UM6P Ventures and is part of its mission to become the leading Ventures firm in Africa, by virtue of quality and inclusiveness in investment strategies. UM6P Ventures caters to Innovators and Entrepreneurs with a venture project, at any level of development. It is a multi-stage Ventures Firm that provides access to a gradient of resources and capital. 

Unlike conventional investment funds and venture capital firms which invest only in capital or have a monolithic investment strategy, UM6P Ventures features four (4) specialized, yet complementary ventures and capital strategies to provide comprehensive and pertinent access to capital, at any stage of maturity. Explorer is the entry point into that funnel with the goal of supporting students, researchers and post-doc initiatives from the UM6P, GEP, MASCIR, 1337, YouCode, Cadi Ayyad, Hassan II, Mohammed V, and Al Akhawayn communities.

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About MIT Sandbox

Launched in 2016, the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund Program provides seed funding, mentorship, and tailored entrepreneurship education that empowers MIT student innovators to explore, take risks, and prepare to launch. The goal of the program is to enable any MIT student — inspired to solve a problem with an innovative solution —

 to learn and experience entrepreneurship. MIT Sandbox is the foundation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem at MIT. Each year, the program opens the door to entrepreneurship for hundreds of undergraduate students, master’s students, and PhDs and provides a launchpad where they can strategize, experiment, and grow. Sandbox’s partnerships with schools around the globe, like UM6P in Morocco, gives non-MIT students the opportunity to take advantage of MIT Sandbox training, mentorship, and contacts. Fostering innovators within a global entrepreneurial ecosystem results in diverse, international businesses.

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