Experts and scholars believe that the innovation ecosystem has changed a lot over the past five years. But to move up a gear, it is essential to remove several obstacles against which the young shoots come up against today. These include the law of exchange, mobile payment but also financing.
“Of the 11.1 million euros invested by the Anava fund of funds, only 5 million euros benefited Tunisian start-ups. And for good reason: a slowdown due to the restrictive foreign exchange law,” said Nejia Gharbi, Managing Director of Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, during the webinar “Do we have the means to invest in the knowledge economy? », which was recently organized by IACE.
The online debate, which brought together representatives from the Department of Communication Technologies and the Digital Economy as well as from the start-up ecosystem, was an opportunity to draw up an inventory of innovation in Tunisia.
Recalling that the exchange code is one of the main obstacles that slows down the dynamics of the innovation ecosystem, the manager said that the new exchange law, which will soon see the light of day, will make it possible to remove this obstacle against which investment funds denominated in foreign currencies.
She also added that the ecosystem of start-ups in Tunisia has evolved a lot thanks to the dynamic that emerged after the adoption of the “Start-up-Act” law and which was accelerated with the put in place various funding mechanisms and programs that have benefited both start-ups and support structures (Startup Support Organization SSO). Thus programs such as “Flywheel”, “Enlien”, “Fast” (Women and Acceleration for start-ups and VSEs) have played the role of booster for the ecosystem and have made it possible to finance, among other things, support for start-ups. Gharbi recognizes, however, that the capital financing has not reached, to date, the expected level of maturity.
822 labeled start-ups
For his part, Tarek Chelaifa, manager at Gsma, in short, underlined that the ecosystem of start-ups has evolved a lot over the past 5 years.
The Tunisia site has gained visibility and has been able to attract foreign investors. “Five years ago, it was unthinkable for a startupper to consider launching a creative start-up. Today, Tunisia has more than 700 start-ups. There are support structures, a labeled market, but also investors and funding. The question today is how high should be financed to have start-ups like “InstaDeep”. In addition, there are no funds for each stage of growth of the start-up”, he specified.
He added that by reaching a certain maturity, Tunisian start-ups are faced with problems in terms of the market but also of skills and financing. A glass ceiling that they can only break by exporting abroad. Mobile payment (most online purchases are paid cash on delivery) but also digital inequalities are also obstacles that persist today and slow down the growth and evolution of start-ups in Tunisia.
Yasser Bououd, member of the Startup Tunisia association, for his part, emphasized the time factor. For him, it is essential to accelerate the investment of the financing provided by the fund of funds “Anava” – which is marking time – to preserve and sustain the most mature start-ups, in particular, in this gloomy economic context. For his part, Wissem Mekki, director of the digital economy at the Ministry of Communication Technologies and the digital economy, said that since April 2019 (adoption of the Startup Act), 822 start-ups have been labeled . He added that the “Start-Up Act 2”, which is currently being drafted, will make up for the shortcomings of the first version of the law.