close
close

Investment instruments, programs created by the Tunisia Startup Act

Investment instruments, programs created by the Tunisia Startup Act

  • Tunisia has many more programs that support startups.
  • Flywheel has already funded over 103 startups at prototype level and 25 startups have received support in raising their Series Rounds.
  • The ANAVA programme is a fund of funds focused on strengthening the venture capital ecosystem in Tunisia.
  • The InnovaTech program is a fund specifically for SMEs.
  • The Halo program aims to train more than 30 ambitious business angels, support 10 investment companies and multiply business angel investments in startups.

In addition to the Startup Act, several vehicles have been developed in the Tunisian Startup Ecosystem, one of which is FLYWHEEL, a financial support program aimed at supporting startups and their support structures. FLYWHEEL is financed by the World Bank and the German company through the GIZ.

FLYWHEEL was born from a joint effort of many ecosystem players. Some of the major issues it had to solve include the scarcity of early investment opportunities, the lack of inclusive opportunities for other Tunisian regions and women, the lack of support structures that intervene at all different levels and a shortage of funds to reach the scale-up phase and series A/B/C, among many more.

FLYWHEEL relies on the subsidy and the repayable subsidy. In our free conversation with Mrs. Salma Baghdadishe stated that FLYWHEEL aims to provide financial support to startups and startup support organizations. The program has designed the financial instruments that are categorized as Proof of Concept (PoC) which provides USD$10,000 (approximately UGX36.9 million, TND31,000) to startups. The seed stage provides up to USD$60,000 (approximately UGX221.6 million, TND186,240) 60% of which is a grant and 40% is a repayable grant.

DEAL is one of the other grants provided to startup support organizations to set up new startup support programs that have added value in terms of expertise, positioning or access to opportunities with a gender and regional perspective.

On the contrary, FLYWHEEL has already more than 103 Startups at prototype level, particularly in AgriTech, DeepTech and HealthTech, with 25 startups supported to raise their Series Rounds, such as: Wattnow which raised USD$1.3 million (approximately UGX4.8 billion, TND4.03 million), GoMyCode which raised USD$8 million (approximately UGX29.5 billion, TND24.8 million) and GalacTech which closed with USD$15 million (approximately UGX55.4 billion, TND46.5 million). 19 new support programs were launched, 64 Startup Support Organisations partnered with Flywheel and 52 tickets were issued to Startup Support Organisations worth USD$130,000 (approximately UGX480.2 million, TND403,520).


ALSO SEE: UGANDA STARTUP POLICY DELEGATION BENCHMARKS WITH TUNISIA


The unique support system that Tunisia has today was born from the Startup Act with 1,043 labeled startups and 2,340 committed founders who have created more than 4,200 jobs, with welcoming innovation hubs. In addition, they have 9 active Business Angel Networks, more than 500 investment operators and 53 Startup Support Organizations that collaborate with ecosystem programs such as FLYWHEEL (a financial support program), Halo (a business Angel activation program) and Invest’i (an investor matching program).

Tunisia Startup Act since April 2019.
Tunisia Startup Act since April 2019.

Tunisia has many more programs that support startups. We learned that they have investment vehicles such as ANAVA-Funds of Funds, Halo Program, the business Angels activation program and Innovatech.

The ANAVA programme is a fund aimed at boosting Tunisia’s venture capital ecosystem. This is part of the country’s strategy that aims to raise £100 million (approximately UGX 477 billion, TND 400.9 million) to foster a robust venture capital (VC) industry by launching 12+ VC firms dedicated to startups. Some of the programmes under ANAVA include: The Funds of Funds that cover all stages of a startup to maturity, The GP incubator — VC LAB and the Guarantee programme.

The ANAVA fund of funds portfolio already includes 216 Capital worth £6 million (approx. UGX 28.6 billion, TND 24 million), Silicon Badla worth £5.2 million (approx. UGX 24.8 billion, TND 20.8 million), Flat6Labs and Medin VC worth £5 million (approx. UGX 23.8 billion, TND 20 million), Janngo worth £4 million (approx. UGX 19.08 billion, TND 16.03 million) and GoBig worth £4.5 million (approx. UGX 21.4 billion, TND 18 million).

The Halo Programme, a Business Angels Activation Programme supported by SPARK and the European Union, supports business angles in four (4) verticals;

  1. Initiation: In collaboration with Efino, they provide a training program for investors.
  2. Connection: This vertical line relates to connecting Business Angels with key players in the ecosystem.
  3. Assistance: This involves providing technical and legal support and a toolbox.
  4. Co-financing: This vertical financing deals with providing grants to startups that have raised funding from business angels.

The Halo program aims to train more than 30 ambitious business angels, support 10 investment firms, multiply business angel investments in startups by three (3), and create a database of business angels.

The InnovaTech program is a fund that is focused on SMEs. This is a specialized investment fund that includes a collective vehicle supervised by the Financial Markets Authority. The target size of this fund is $40 million. It was learned that Smart Capital is the general partner, sponsored by Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC), which acts as Uganda Development Cooperation (UDC) of Uganda. This fund will run for 10 years and will target 50 SMEs that have an explicit technology approach to their operations.

Innovatech embraces the power of entrepreneurship, technologyand digital transformation to Tunisian SMEs to transform the economy. It was mentioned that “InnovaTech is supported by the World Bank to support innovative SMEs and also received a $75 million loan to fuel this vision and objectives.

InnovaTech, in addition to startups, recognizes the transformative power of digitalization and innovation across all sectors, emphasizing the importance of adapting for businesses to remain competitive and sustainable in this dynamic landscape.

Editor’s Note: The article is written by Keneth Twesigye; Policy Lead at Startup Uganda and CEO of TechBuzz Hub