Startup Haus Tunis

The Startup Haus Tunis was opened in March 2016 and managed by enpact until November 2019. During this period, it witnessed more than 300 events, 20 programs, 250 tenants and a growing community of more than 1.000 members as well as host visitors like the German chancellor Angela Merkel, the former President of Germany Christian Wulff, the former Tunisian Minister of Finance Slim Chaker and the former Tunisian Secretary of State for Entrepreneurship Saiyda Ounissi.

The Startup Haus Tunis project was launched in August 2015. It is based on a project idea from enpact, that was developed during our activities in Tunisia when we realized, that there were no adequate co-working places for our team. After pitching the project to several donors, the Westerwelle Foundation was agreeing to finance it.

The overall purpose of the Startup Haus concept is, to promote entrepreneurship and support the local ecosystem, by creating a one-stop-shop all startup related activities.

1) Creating a hub linking all stakeholders in the ecosystem in order to streamline their activities – NGOs, government programs, chambers of commerce, accelerators and incubators, co-working spaces, private sector initiatives, business angels etc.

2) Promoting and fostering an entrepreneurial spirit and culture, i.e. to raise awareness among youth that entrepreneurship is an opportunity to get out of unemployment and inadequate employment.

3) Fostering a sense of community in Tunis’ young startup ecosystem and to provide a space for the exchange of ideas, peer-to-peer learning, workshops, horizontal and vertical learning and capacity building opportunities.

In November 2019, the management was handed over to the former funding partner, the Westerwelle Foundation, which renamed the Startup Haus.