The meeting was marked by a fruitful exchange which made it possible to draw up the inventory of fixtures of the sector in Algeria, with its strong points and its weak points.
The ecosystem of start-ups in Germany and the history of their success as well as the evolution and prospects of their development in Algeria were, yesterday in Algiers, the subject of a rich debate between experts and actors from the two countries.
Organized by the German foundation Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the Circle of Action and Reflection for the company (CARE), the meeting was marked by a fruitful exchange which made it possible to draw up the inventory of fixtures of the sector in Algeria, with its strengths and weaknesses, but also and above all to draw inspiration from another model that has succeeded and of which that of Germany is no longer to be presented.
A German model was dissected, for this purpose, by Dr. Jannis Gilde, research project manager at the level of the Association for the Development of the Ecosystem of Startups and Investment in Germany.
In his presentation of the ecosystem of German startups: strategies, the German success story, the speaker from Berlin by videoconference underlined the importance of clusters and regions, and above all an ecosystem connected to universities, as factors of success. startups in his country, which has, according to him, between 15,000 and 20,000 startups and generating no less than one million direct and indirect jobs.
Cities like Berlin and Munich are in the top 10 cities with the most connected and supportive ecosystems, and therefore having the highest number of startups in the country, he said. And if the strong point of the German model is in its policy of decentralization with universities resolutely committed to research, and public authorities supporting the ecosystem of start-ups, Dr Jannis did not fail to point out, however, that the war in Ukraine has reached the ecosystem of startups generating an unprecedented crisis in the sector.
A crisis, he said, having started with the Covid pandemic and which is now taking hold with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. A crisis that got the better of a good number of startups and whose decline was 18% in 2022, according to him. Noting, however, a slight trend of recovery in recent times, the speaker did not omit to highlight an “explosion” in the development of startups in green technologies, pointing out that 35% of startups in Germany work in sustainable development and 45% of them are in artificial intelligence.
Finally, the representative of the association of German start-ups, which has some 1,200 members, admitted to the difficulty of attracting young talent from now on because of the bureaucracy that is rampant in the administrations.
Succeeding him, Dr Kilian Bachmair, a doctor at the University of Cambridge and Dr Nikolas Hoehme, head of digital transformation at Hankel, presented in turn the process of incubation of startups in Germany, and this, since the birth of the innovative idea to the maturation of the project, then its realization and development.
Dr. Kilian did not omit to mention the Algerian-German cooperative project Kassiopeia, which provides support and advice to the ecosystem of Algerian startups. Other cooperative projects in the field will see the light of day, indicated Mattias Shafer, director of the KAS Algeria Foundation and moderator of the meeting. The case of the renewable energy cluster through the GIZ was an example of Algerian-German cooperation, it was recalled.
The challenge of retaining skills
“If Germany has difficulty attracting skills, our challenge is to retain them!” This is the sentence of Dr. Mehdi Omarouayache, president of the Algerian digital cluster.
In his presentation of the evolution and prospects of the startup ecosystem in Algeria, the speaker felt that Algeria, which is experiencing a drain on its gray matter, can take advantage of its skills abroad, and this, through partnership projects and an efficient and intelligent contribution from its diaspora.
But despite this massive exodus of skills, the president of the Algerian digital cluster was full of praise for the state of the sector in Algeria, citing the rankings of the Global Startup Ecosystem (which analyzes and classifies the state of startup ecosystems in the world and ranks the city of Berlin in 6th position) and whose Algeria has gained several points in its rankings over the past three years, namely 984th place in 2021, 771st place in 2022 and 446th place in 2023.
A ranking that made the speaker say that Algeria is ranked first in the evolution of its ecosystem, citing all the incentives and aid from the public authorities for the emergence of the sector.
To this end, he will cite the ASF public fund created by the six public banks and a compartment on the Algiers Stock Exchange, both intended for the financing of startups, as well as the tax incentives for companies contained in the 2022 finance law. in its article 171.
The speaker also indicated that of the 3,516 label requests, 951 were granted for an average time of 8.3 days to obtain it, “which is far from bureaucracy”, he insisted. The city of Algiers is first in the distribution of projects, seconded by the city of Sétif then Oran, according to Dr Mehdi Omarouayache.
Not stopping at simple observation, he will cite Yassir as an Algerian success story worth 150 million dollars with unavoidable international visibility. This Algerian startup specializing in transport and which is deployed on three continents, according to Dr. Mehdi, was also the subject of an exchange of views on its current hassles with the public authorities.
Considered unfair competition by taxi drivers, Yassir is experiencing the same problems as Uber in France, according to Dr. Mehdi, while for the president of CARE and a lawyer by training, Mrs. Benmiloud, “it is an abuse of power by certain people but not the State”, suggesting that the company “defend itself” by resorting either to justice or to the Competition Council.
Finally, and as the main player in supporting innovation through technology transfer and incubation, Dr. Fragua Rabah, head of the management engineering department at the National Agency for the Valorization of Research and Development Results Technological (Anvredet), dwelled at length on the operation and actions of the organization in favor of incubators and project leaders on a national scale, citing, to this effect, cases in the agri-food and agricultural sector.
For Dr Fragua, “Since 2020, Anvredet has changed its strategy and now supports incubators at the university and local level, by providing our expertise to project leaders”.
