From vision to reality: Transforming the African Tech landscape
Among the remarkable Women in Tech in Africa is Hiba Mrani Alaoui, an investor and Managing Partner at Witamax, who is passionate about disruption. Hiba welcomed the HEC United team to her office in Casablanca, where she shared her exceptional journey. A graduate of HEC Paris (class of 2015), she is a trailblazer in Morocco's startup investment industry. This is no exaggeration—after advising over 100 startups, she co-founded the country’s first privately-backed venture capital firm and has been instrumental in driving disruptive projects in the sector. Discover her story.
HEC United is a student initiative where HEC Paris students travel around the world for six months to meet and interview HEC alumni—entrepreneurs and change-makers.
His early career in finance in New York
Hiba graduated from the HEC Paris Master in Management, majoring in Management of New Technologies in 2015. "The excitement of French Tech was flourishing at that time," she explains.
She began her professional journey with internships in finance and investment banking, primarily in mergers and acquisitions, before moving to New York to join Natixis CIB Americas in the leverage finance department.
One of the biggest challenges she faced was launching an intrapreneur program for the Banking sector for BNP Paribas. “It gave me a vision for my country, Morocco,” she shares.
From vision to reality
Hiba established a venture capital fund in Africa at a time when the country's ecosystem was a complete desert. "There were very few initiatives, and even though there were emerging efforts from the institutional side, they were often not adapted to the country's reality," she recalls.
In collaboration with SouthBridge and Axxam Family Office, and together with Hassan Belkhayat, an HEC Paris alumnus and intrapreneurial partner, Hiba created SouthBridge A&I, the first privately-backed venture capital firm in Morocco.
They introduced a distinctive and innovative approach that was particularly startup-friendly yet rigorous enough to meet investor expectations.
Hiba is confident in Morocco's potential:
Listen to her full story to learn about:
- What inspired her to develop the startup investment sector in Morocco
- Why DataPathology is her favorite startup in the portfolio
- Perspectives for women in venture capital in Africa
- Her advice to HEC Paris students
For more inspiring stories and insights from HEC Alumni, check out the HEC United Youtube playlist.
About HEC United
HEC United is an ongoing student-led project that creates a connection between current HEC students and thousands of alumni spread across the world. A team of two students travels to various countries each year to interview alumni about their experiences during and after their time at HEC.