Launched in 2014 in Tunis and bought by the biotechnology group BioNTech for 409 million euros, InstaDeep specializes in artificial intelligence for medical use. This start-up intends to revolutionize the sector, but also put its country of origin on the map of innovation.
From our correspondent in Tunis,
« Hello and welcome ! “. Like an air of Silicon Valley in Tunis. ” I hope you will learn a lot here. We’re a pretty nice and cool club, I hope your internship is going well “. It is in English that Zohra Slim, the co-founder of the start-up InstaDeep, welcomes its new interns this morning. Some are already wearing a sweatshirt flocked with the logo of the box.
New recruits proud to join one of the most prominent start-ups of the moment. And the oldest, moved to see what has become of their box and which now has offices in Lagos, Cape Town, Dubai, Paris and even London. « I’m Amine Kerkeni, I’m head of engineering at InstaDeep. I joined InstaDeep in early 2017. Honestly, I half believed it. Even if, strangely, that’s what I was sold at the start: that we really wanted to create an artificial intelligence company on an international scale. »
It is now done. Born in Tunis, InstaDeep, whose headquarters are now in London, counts among its customers the German rail networks and the French company Total. But it is the Covid pandemic that will give a boost to its growth. As the world teeters in the unknown, InstaDeep engineers set up a tool capable of detecting the most dangerous variants of the virus. This is of great interest to the German BioNTech, which has marketed a vaccine. He decides to buy the company from Zohra Slim and his partner Karim Beguir.
While Tunisia is going through an intense economic crisis, the announcement of the purchase of InstaDeep by BioNTech made headlines last January in the country: « I haven’t left my house for a week. It’s that simple. There was so much enthusiasm that it scared me a little. My face was everywhere. I turned on the TV, I saw myself, I was there, no I don’t want to! »
Adored, decorated, the Tunisian duo is convinced that Tunisia can become a leader in Artificial Intelligence in Africa as long as the legislation is relaxed: “ Young people have unparalleled potential because there are countries where people go from point A to B directly. We, to go from A to B, you have to go through C, D, Y and then arrive at point B. The way we think is less linear. »
Assets and a spectacular takeover by BioNTech which will allow this Tunisian company to focus on its priority: advancing in the development of a vaccine against cancer.
► Read also: Zohra Slim, co-founder of InstaDeep