The Tunisian Startup College has awarded 440 startup labels and 281 pre-labels out of a total of 1206 applications received through February 9, 2022, Startup Tunisia has stated.

The national program “Start-up Tunisia” aims to make Tunisia a privileged regional destination and a national incentive site for the creation and attraction of start-ups. It is part of the Digital Tunisia strategy.

This strategy aims to promote Tunisia as a hub for startups in the southern Mediterranean region, the Arab world and the African continent.

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Lessons from Tunisia’s seeming success with its Startup Act

Tunisia’s Startup Act has largely succeeded because of a collaboration between the public and private sectors. For instance, Smart Capital, the company in charge of administering the Tunisian Startup Act is privately managed, although with public shareholding. The company was approved by the Tunisian Financial Markets Council, and works with the country’s Ministry of Communication Technologies and Digital Economy and the Ministry of Finance. Smart Capital’s mission is simple and straight-forward: design and implement the Startup Tunisia initiative (including among others, the Startup Act and the Fund of Funds ANAVA), in order to make Tunisia a country of startups at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, MENA region and Africa.

Read also:4 Tunisian Startups Form The First Cohort Of The Central Bank Of Tunisia’s Regulatory “Sandbox”

Thus, handing over the administration of the Act to a private entity has saved the Act from the bugs of bureaucracy and inefficiencies that eat up most government commissions and agencies in Africa. The company has been promoting Tunisian startups and planning several launches of funds in support of startups, recently.

Tunisia Startup labels Tunisia Startup labels

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer