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- Betacube: driving start-ups across the continent
Betacube: driving start-ups across the continent
Betacube is a Pan-African venture builder, empowering talents to transform their ideas into exceptional start-ups. Founder and CEO Amel Saidane aims to prevent brain drain by retaining African entrepreneurs. Seeking international expansion, Betacube partnered with PUM: through strategic discussions and workshops, an initial growth strategy was established. Since Betacube plans to implement their model in multiple African countries, PUM aims to capture potential synergies to contribute to a lasting impact on Africa’s start-up ecosystem.
Betacube is a Pan-African venture builder, established in 2019 and based in Tunis. They enable talented individuals to transform their ideas and skills into outstanding ventures. By leveraging collaboration scenarios, Betacube exposes these startups to the world, facilitating scalability and growth. Co-founding with Betacube is flexible and remote-friendly, making it particularly ideal for African talents. To date, Betacube has supported over 200 technology start-ups from the idea phase through to market validation and fundraising. Country coordinator Eva van der Fluit: “Amel Saidane is the founder and owner of Betacube. Her goal is to prevent the brain drain from Africa by retaining Africa’s talent. After receiving education and pursuing a career in Europe and North America, Amel has returned to serve her country. She inspires fellow entrepreneurs in transforming their ideas into thriving start-ups.”
Amel is an entrepreneur, among builders of the Tunisian startup ecosystem, and a digital transformation expert. She acts as a board member for the Digital Center of Excellence of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, she is member of the start-up selection committee of the Tunisian Ministry of ICT, and sits on the board of the Digital Arabia Network. Amel aims to expand internationally, and she approached PUM, looking for a like-minded expert to spar with on Betacube’s growth strategy.
Matching two like-minded experts
Eva: “It was not easy for PUM to match an expert with this client. Our local representative Tarak Ouerghi who met her in his network, told me: ‘Amel moves fast, thinks fast, talks fast and is up to date with all the latest developments in her fields. That is also why the United Nations and her government call on her as an advisor on Africa’s economic transformation.’
But fortunately, Frans van de Ven appeared to be an excellent match. He has seen and done it all when it comes to setting up companies in Europe and the United States. As a PUM expert, he has also worked with start-ups in refugee camps in Africa. Just like Amel, he knows what he is talking about.” There was immediately a good connection between Amel, her team and Frans. In March, they conducted an online workshop to finetune the scope and priorities of the collaboration. During Ramadan, Frans was in Tunis and they all worked closely together.
Start-up ecosystem across Africa
Starting point of the intensive strategic discussions was the pressing challenge of fulfilling the demand for venture building across Africa. To address this, Betacube aims to implement their model in various African countries. Additionally, they intend to establish and expand a consultancy practice to share knowledge on new business development, business incubation, and venturing.
When Frans left, the team had lots of input and ideas to work on. The design and structure of the consulting practice, validation of the growth strategy, and the establishment of connections with potential partners. Frans is following them closely and has regular online contact. Soon, he will return to Tunis for the next stage of the project. Since Betacube aims to initiate operations in multiple African countries where PUM is also active, potential synergies should be captured.
Interested in this project? Get in touch with
Tarak Ouerghi
Representative Tunisia, Soukra
