Forcing Function: 216 Capital's Dhekra Khelifi On How Morocco's 2030 FIFA World Cup Is Accelerating Its Innovation Ecosystem
“Our focus is ensuring the event serves as a firm deadline for systemic reforms, forcing the pace of modernization that may have otherwise taken two decades.”
Editor's Note: This article is part of a special Inc. Arabia series examining how Morocco's business ecosystem is positioning itself ahead of the country co-hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2030. Check out the full series here.
For Dhekra Khelifi, Founding Partner of the Tunis-based early-stage venture capital (VC) firm 216 Capital, Morocco’s co-hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2030 is less a sporting event than a forcing function—a hard deadline that is challenging founders, investors, and policymakers to accelerate the pace of change. As she puts it: “Our focus is ensuring the event serves as a firm deadline for systemic reforms, forcing the pace of modernization that may have otherwise taken two decades.”
That sense of urgency, then, is shaping how 216 Capital is watching, and investing in, Morocco right now. As the country gets set to co-host the FIFA World Cup 2030 alongside Portugal and Spain, Khelifi says that such mega-events can act as powerful accelerators for Morocco’s tech and infrastructure sectors. “As a pan-African/ MENA VC firm, we are very focused on how these mega-events create lasting infrastructural and digital legacies, not just temporary boosts,” she adds.
According to Khelifi, the tournament is spurring interest in sectors like logistics tech and supply chain, as well as smart infrastructure tech—216 Capital itself has backed companies operating in both areas, including Logidoo, a Senegal- and Morocco- based cross-border logistics platform, and Wattnow, a Tunisia-based artificial intelligence (AI)-powered energy management platform.
This momentum, Khelifi adds, is also being reinforced at the institutional level. “This national transformation, backed by strong signaling from the Moroccan Government through the Mohamed VI Fund for Investment, is actively setting the stage for future international capital,” she says. “We anticipate this state-level commitment, combined with events like the World Cup, will further encourage global limited partners (LPs) and co-investors to view Morocco and the region as a secure and strategic bridge.”
Long-term, Khelifi believes that the biggest winners will be logistics tech and fintech, as Morocco’s event-driven infrastructure upgrades and digitized economy create permanent efficiencies that spill into trade and commerce across the region. “Sectors solely dependent on the tourism surge, like pop-up hospitality or non-specialized services, are likely to dip,” she adds. “To ensure this isn’t a temporary boom, investors like us must focus on growth-stage funding and internationalization support, actively partnering with founders to refine their product for global market export. Furthermore, by co-investing alongside government vehicles, such as the Mohamed VI Fund, we help derisk the ecosystem and build the foundation for sustainable VC maturity, attracting consistent international capital longterm.”
Sustaining that momentum, however, will require continued progress across the broader startup landscape in Morocco, Khelifi says. Comparing it with more developed ecosystems in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, she points to the need for scaling funding volume and enhancing the ease of the regulatory environment. “While Morocco consistently generates a strong number of early- stage deals, the ecosystem is still maturing toward consistently facilitating the mega-rounds seen in the Gulf, which are essential for minting billion- dollar companies and attracting a broader base of international institutional capital,” she explains.
As an example, Khelifi points to Morocco’s fintech sector, which continues to be constrained by “a persistent cash-based culture and the dominance of incumbent banks,” a dynamic she notes is shared by other North African markets, including her native Tunisia. “These factors create a hurdle for accelerating digital financial inclusion compared to the more dynamic fintech hubs in the wider region,” Khelifi says. “However, we are highly optimistic that change is imminent; increased government focus, the rise of ambitious local founders, and the success of early-stage startups are paving the way for necessary systemic reforms to match the scale and speed of digital transformation seen in the GCC.”
For Khelifi, the lessons of previous host nations of the World Cup are equally instructive for Morocco, with the core takeaway being that hardware does not equal legacy. “The South African experience [in 2010] taught us that investing heavily in dedicated sporting infrastructure can lead to expensive white elephants if post-event utilization is not rigorously planned,” she notes. “Qatar [in 2022], conversely, showed that massive infrastructure spending can successfully accelerate national development plans, but the ultimate value lies in the digital and social infrastructure created, not just the stadiums.” Ultimately, Khelifi believes that the tournament’s most lasting contribution will be as an accelerator for startups, regulatory ecosystems, and investment alike. “The goal is to maximize the ‘soft power’ effect to attract permanent foreign direct investment, and build a self-sustaining tech ecosystem, not just a one-time construction boom,” she concludes.
Pictured in the lead image is 216 Capital Founding Partner Dhekra Khelifi. Image courtesy 216 Capital.
