I had the privilege to speak to the Tunisian Startup Ecosystem expert; Ms. Salma Baghdadi who represents Startup Tunisia — an association of startups. This association has acted as the voice of startups for the last seven (7) years. This initiative does the advocacy role between public and private organizations to foster the tech ecosystem in Tunisia, and other activities such as; training and capacity building, ecosystem building, and inclusion.
Before this role, Ms. Salma had worked in public policy with Smart Capital for 5 years as an ecosystem director where she had the opportunity to work on the Startup Act from day zero all through the implementation process to the cocreation process and building the platform till date where we see over 1,000 startups labeled.
She also stated that her work also involved hosting events and a portfolio of other programs.
Ms. Salma says one of the other major roles that Startup Tunisia has been able to do is; supporting hubs with some grants of about USD$60,000 (approx. UGX222.3 million, TND187,000) to run programs that develop unique models that fill existing gaps in the Tunisian startup ecosystem but also performance/progress reports relating to how many startups they have practically supported with good KPI’s, then they can go ahead and provide some grants to each of their best-performing startups with USD$5,000 (approx. UGX18.6 million, TND16,000) grants,
Ms. Salma was also kind enough to answer questions; to mention but a few. She explained how ANAVA —”fund of funds”. Using an example of ANAVA, she said, Smart Capital is an LP (limited partner) that contributes funds to the ANAVA fund but does not participate in the day-to-day management of the fund itself.
To the question of opportunities in the Startup Act; were incentives like’ salary for two startup founders for a year based on their previous as they build their startups, waived off paying social security expenses, tax holiday up to 8 years of formal existence, creation of a special currency account to allow for startups to exchange their money which was not possible in the local economic policy.
When responding to the downside of the Startup Act; she said, that innovation hubs and startup support organizations that support the acceleration of the ecosystem were not recognized, and incentives for Startup Support Organizations (SSOs) such as accelerators, incubators, and hubs were not provided.
We should have also included a warranty and guarantee fund for Startup Support Organizations to allow for acceleration of the Startups driven by these ecosystem builders who are always part of the startup building equation.
From Baghdad, she first highlighted why the legal framework of the Startup Act needs to evolve. She suggested that having startup policies and laws in the forms of version one, two, and so on, is the best idea for this sector. This is simply because it is an ever-changing area. The Technology enabling this space to grow so fast will change tomorrow or the other day, so with the contemporary approach to the legal framework that often never has the flexibility.
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To the question of whether there is a crowd-funding form of funding in Tunisia, she answered that it was not successful. The Crowdfunding legal framework got stuck but there is a decree that it was validated but it has not been implemented. However, I have been more involved with business angels that had 4 activities around; Capacity building with business angels, connecting the local investors, communication and exposure of angels, and incubating through 30% grant funding to startups that close angel funding. For example, if a startup raised USD$100,000 (approx. UGX369.5 million, TND309,000), The startup in Tunisia would give USD$30,000 (approx. UGX110.8 million, TND93,000).
A question regarding whether there are guidelines and regulations for innovation hubs was raised. There is no blueprint for supporting hubs except maybe supporting their capacity development needs through providing international experts to provide capacity on venture building and incubation and maybe encouraging partnerships.
Regarding the question on certification, procedures, and costs for startups’ products or ideas, Salma’s insights were spot on when she stated that; We do not do certification but we bear charge of all invoices on Intellectual property 100% which is mostly needed for international demands for startups.
Editor’s Note: The article is written by Keneth Twesigye; Policy Lead at Startup Uganda, and CEO of TechBuzz Hub
