The Ministry of Communication Technologies awarded on May 9, 14 new labels for startups under the April 2023 session, bringing the total number of labels granted under the “Startup Act” programme to 884. Designed to facilitate the launch and development of startups in Tunisia, this framework integrates 20 measures structured around a label of merit and many benefits to entrepreneurs, investors and startups. A public “Startup Tunisia” programme was part of the National Strategic Plan for Digital Tunisia 2016-2021 and was extended as part of the National Strategy for Digital Transformation 2021-2025. The programme seeks to make Tunisia a unique talent pool in the region for startups and technology companies, design, and support initiatives, identify high-potential technological themes where Tunisia can position itself on a global scale – regional and design and implement competitive underlying Clusters, ideally outside of Tunis, Design and implement local and international market access programmes for both startups and technology companies and ensure excellent Marketing for Tunisia as a destination and provide Tunisia with places to anchor startup and innovation ecosystems with an inclusive dynamic. The Startup Act is based on a label of merit and a series of benefits and incentives for Entrepreneurs, Startups, and Investors. STARTUP INVEST: A financing framework to develop an ecosystem of VC funds with high added value for startups. Startup Invest is based on 3 instruments: A VC Fund of Funds, an Incubator of Management Companies, and a Guarantee Programme. STARTUP ECOSYSTEM: A framework to support startups and entrepreneurial hubs to support all actors in the ecosystem. Startup Ecosystem is divided into 3 missions at the service of the actors of the ecosystem: Financing, Animation, and International connection. By 2024, “Startup Tunisia” aims to create 1,000 startups and 10,000 jobs and to succeed in hatching at least one unicorn with the achievement of TND 1 billion in turnover. These objectives should be achieved through the labelling programme, which is the core of the Startup Act. The programme started in April 2019. Since then, every month, around 20 startups are labelled and/or pre-labelled, from an average of around 50 applications. The implementation of Startup Tunisia was entrusted to Smart Capital, a management company approved by the Financial Markets Council. Under this programme, any labelled startup has the right to open a special account in foreign currency. Labelled startups are also exempt from corporate income tax and are considered as authorised economic operators under the Customs Code. They are also exempt from the approval of the technical import control procedures of the Research and Studies Telecommunications Centre (CERT) and enjoy a technology card.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse