Tunisia’s state-backed startup financing system is shifting focus beyond the capital and coastal hubs, launching a second regional roadshow aimed at reaching entrepreneurs in the country’s interior.
The “Innovative Startups and SMEs” project, financed by the World Bank and implemented by the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) in partnership with Smart Capital, will hold events in Le Kef, Monastir, Gafsa and Zarzis from late September through 23 October. The first edition in 2025 visited Bizerte, Kairouan, Sfax and Gabès.
The initiative responds to a heavily concentrated funding landscape. According to a study by the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies, as much as 80.5 per cent of fundraising is centralised in Greater Tunis, while startups captured only 1.8 per cent of total invested capital in 2024. Many interior regions are described as a “financial desert,” with the majority of bank branches clustered along the coast.
At each stop, organisers will present two main instruments. ANAVA, Tunisia’s first fund of funds and the first of its kind on the African continent, channels capital indirectly through child funds that invest in startups in Tunisia and across Africa and the Middle East. It has a target size of €100 million, with a first closing of €60 million already secured €40 million from the CDC via a World Bank loan and €20 million from Germany’s KfW.
InnovaTech provides direct financing aimed at innovative small and medium-sized enterprises. Together the mechanisms form the core of the project’s dual approach: indirect financing through ANAVA and direct support via InnovaTech.
The roadshow is intended as more than an information session. It is designed to create meetings between entrepreneurs, investors and regional support organisations, with the goal of building a more inclusive and geographically balanced entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The effort forms part of Tunisia’s broader Startup Tunisia framework, which includes the Startup Act and efforts to strengthen venture capital. By taking the instruments on the road, authorities are attempting to correct the long-standing imbalance that has left most startup capital concentrated in the capital and a few coastal cities.
