Startup Act & Smart Capital — Tunisia's National Startup-Labelling Law

Tunisia's Startup Act, ratified in 2018 and implemented from 2019, was Africa's first dedicated national startup law. It created a state 'Label' — administered by the public body Smart Capital — that grants qualifying founders a package of benefits including corporate-tax exemptions, streamlined company registration, foreign-exchange facilities and priority access to public financing programmes. The World Bank backed the reform with a $75 million loan in 2019, and France's development agency Expertise France contributed €583,000 toward implementation.

By the end of 2021, the programme had labelled 650 startups (65% of its 2024 target of 1,000), which had created 4,500 jobs (45% of a 10,000-job goal) and reached a cumulative turnover of TND 240 million (24% of a TND 1 billion goal); 13 labelled startups had entered international markets, and a COVID-era emergency loan scheme (SAVE) protected 60 startups. By 2024, Smart Capital reported 1,043 startups labelled — surpassing the original 1,000 target — from over 2,200 applications across 63 review sessions, with reported annual funding raised by labelled startups climbing from $11 million (2020) to $782 million (2023), a jump driven largely by two outsized deals (AI firm InstaDeep's exit-related $682 million and fintech Expensya's $100 million round).

The programme's own data flags real equity gaps: as of 2021, 70% of labelled startups were concentrated in the capital Tunis, only 5% were founded exclusively by women (though women filled 45% of jobs created), and the law's own architects concluded that "Startup Act 1.0 was important and necessary... but not sufficient to ensure sustainability," citing slow administrative processes and thin early-stage funding. This assessment led to a follow-on "Startup Act 2.0" reform process from 2024. The original law has also been cited as a reference point for similar startup-act legislation drafted in Algeria, Senegal and Rwanda.

Read the full analysis: https://pctechmag.com/2024/07/exploring-the-impact-of-tunisias-startup-act-at-smart-capital/