Sanlam Maroc, the Moroccan arm of South Africa’s Sanlam Group, has taken a $2.2m equity stake in Woliz, a local startup building digital infrastructure for neighbourhood retailers. The investment, announced on December 24, marks Sanlam Maroc’s first long-term private equity move into Morocco’s startup ecosystem.
The insurer said the transaction is aimed at supporting the modernisation of small retail — a sector that remains largely informal but underpins daily commerce across the country — while expanding access to financial services for shop owners that are typically underserved by banks.
Woliz is positioning itself as a technology layer for Morocco’s so-called hanout economy: the dense network of corner shops that dominate last-mile distribution. Its platform provides connected point-of-sale terminals and software that allow shopkeepers to manage inventory, process digital payments and link into a wider network of distributors, manufacturers, telecoms operators and financial institutions.
For Sanlam Maroc, the deal is also a way to deepen its exposure to a niche market that has historically been difficult to reach with conventional insurance and financial products. The group said it expects the partnership to inform the development of tailored offerings for small merchants, from micro-insurance to embedded financial services.
The investment fits into Morocco’s “Digital Morocco 2030” strategy, which sets out to modernise the economy and broaden financial inclusion through the rollout of digital infrastructure across key sectors. It also reflects a broader push by large African financial groups to experiment with venture-style investments as a route into fast-growing but fragmented markets.
In September, Woliz signed a framework agreement with Morocco’s Ministry of Industry and Trade to support the digital transformation of local retail. Under the programme, 20,000 neighbourhood shops are expected to receive connected terminals in the first phase, with the platform eventually targeting up to 90,000 merchants nationwide.
The company says the initiative is designed to give shopkeepers tools to simplify daily operations, widen payment options and improve access to formal finance. Beyond payments, the platform is intended to structure data flows across the retail value chain, enabling merchants to better manage stock, understand sales patterns and engage more efficiently with suppliers.
Chief executive Kamal El Hardouzi has previously described Morocco’s small-shop economy as one of the country’s most economically dense but least digitised infrastructures. Woliz’s approach is to put the merchant at the centre of a unified ecosystem that links commerce, logistics and financial services, using automation and data analytics to reduce friction across the network.
The $2.2m injection will be used to expand the company’s technology stack and to support a broader rollout on the ground. While Morocco remains its primary focus, Woliz has signalled longer-term ambitions to take the model into other African markets once the local deployment is stabilised.
For Sanlam Maroc, the transaction also comes at a time when foreign investment into Africa’s digital economy has been rebounding after a subdued 2023, helped in part by renewed interest in infrastructure-style platforms that promise steady, long-term adoption rather than rapid consumer growth.
Whether Woliz can translate that interest into sustainable scale will depend on its ability to onboard and retain tens of thousands of small merchants — a task that is operationally complex but central to the future of retail digitisation in Morocco.