Biography
Ramy Zemmouchi is the co-founder and board member of SoCode, a coding school in Algeria. He works as a consultant for various actors in the Algerian startup scene, including the Algerian government’s startup fund (ASF) and multiple tech startups. Ramy also hosts the Tekup podcast, dedicated to the Algerian startup scene.
This interview focuses on the Algerian startup scene as a whole, rather than Ramy’s company.
How would you segment the history of Algeria’s startup scene?
I’d split it into three main phases.
The first phase would be the 2000s till the mid 2010s, with the emergence of Algeria’s first internet businesses, such as Emploitic (a local job board) and Ouedkniss (a goods marketplace). These companies preceded the actual democratization of internet access in the country, which came along with 3G being rolled out in 2013. The percentage of the Algerian population using the internet jumped from 13% in 2010 to 77% in 2023.
The second phase would be the mid 2010s, following the deployment of 3G and ADSL in Algerian homes. Startups like Quizzito (based in Oran) were launched, but the main players were ride-hailing and delivery apps such as temtem (now temtem One, a super app) and of course our national champion Yassir. They launched early 2017. I remember hanging out with the team testing the product, before its launch!
The third and current phase would start in 2020, with the creation of Algeria’s “Ministry of Startups”. We’ll dive deeper into the successes and failures of that Ministry, but it undoubtedly democratized internet businesses as a concept. An increasing number of talented, young Algerians want to launch startups, which wasn’t the case a decade ago. The Ministry and associated initiatives, such as the Algerian Startup Fund (ASF) and Algeria Venture (a state-owned startup accelerator), channelled money towards various new actors, allowing the ecosystem to “consolidate” into a proper one.
Why is the Algerian government increasing its startup support, now?