Sawari Ventures' Wael Amin On Why Morocco's FIFA World Cup 2030 Will Reward Startups Built For Scale—And Shrinkage
“I think the opportunity is to ask: what are the capabilities that survive once you are forced to build them?”
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.
Most investors ask how startups build for scale. But for Wael Amin, Partner at the Egypt-based, pan-African venture capital (VC) firm Sawari Ventures, the more telling question is: how do you build for shrinkage?
That’s the premise at the center of how he’s thinking about the current momentum driving investors and startups to Morocco ahead of the country co-hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2030. “Morocco, over the coming years, is not just going to be a market, but it’s going to be almost a test bed, an experiment, of suddenly pushing Morocco into levels of density, transactional intensity, logistical complexity that is through the roof, that is going to ramp up very, very quickly, and very suddenly,” Amin predicts. According to him, that testbed will serve as a stress test not just for entrepreneurs, but also for regulators, government, and administration. “Maybe, even more importantly, is that all of that is also going to disappear suddenly,” he adds. “And this kind of massive spike up and then back down in demand and population and density and transactions is a great test for any entrepreneur, any startup.”
According to Amin, the industries in Morocco that will receive the bulk of attention in the short term will be those that typically do around global mega-events, specifically, infrastructure, transport, hospitality, and tourism. “These are first degree, but that’s not what interests us,” Amin adds. “What interests us is the underlying infrastructure that is there to enable that, like payments, mobility, labor orchestration, safety, identity, data— so, the infrastructure layer of technology and solutions to enable events.” Beyond sectoral opportunity, Amin also notes that mega events provide hosts with an exceptional window of exposure by transforming them into “mega cities” for a limited time—exposure that is particularly valuable to Moroccan founders. “Startups, companies, and entrepreneurs that are able to succeed in that environment are almost inherently ready to go global,” Amin declares.
While increasing visibility ahead of the tournament is also translating into appetite from investors and global limited partners (LPs), Amin is quick to point out that it’s not just the World Cup 2030 that is driving interest. He notes that the North African country has taken significant steps over the past five years to position itself as an investable destination— and that strategy has already begun paying dividends. As the momentum accelerates over the next four years, Amin believes that the country would benefit from differentiating itself from its peers in the region. “Maybe the coming period is an opportunity to say, look, Morocco is not competing on size, it’s not competing on speed,” Amin says. “Instead, it’s a place where these platforms and systems are going to be tested against a global audience, tested against a massive spike in demand, tested before going elsewhere… And maybe that’s a subtle yet valid positioning.”
To fully capture that position, Amin believes that regulators should adopt the same versatile mindset they are asking of entrepreneurs. Temporary regulatory frameworks could include policies like providing six-month licenses to do business in the country with compressed timeframes for vetting, or setting strict data expiration rights rather than just privacy rights. “Why? Because I want to support these pop-up opportunities—these startups that come can move fast,” Amin explains. “I get out of their way from a regulatory standpoint... So, you can do all of these things for 120 days and then, when the tournament is over, you delete the data, you forget it, you show proof that it’s gone.”
And it is precisely that understanding of transient demand that Amin believes startup founders in Morocco would do well to adopt. “I think the opportunity is to ask: what are the capabilities that survive once you are forced to build them?” he says. “It puts the spotlight on entrepreneurs whose startups and systems do well not just in scaling up, but also in scaling down. So, a software that handles the sudden drops, tools that help you manage and redeploy idle assets, or business models that take advantage of excess labor or capital after the peak—all of these are interesting opportunities for entrepreneurs and companies that look at the downside of that curve. Because it’s very easy to do business and sell when demand is spiking. It’s a lot more challenging as it goes down.”
Pictured in the lead image is Sawari Ventures Partner Wael Amin. Image courtesy Sawari Ventures.
This article was originally published in the May - June 2026 edition of Inc. Arabia. Check out the issue in full on this link.
