Innovation with a Purpose: Discovering Tunisia's Hidden Gems
By Alberto Onetti, Chairman, Mind the Bridge
Innovation often seems like an abstract game: trendy technologies chasing buzzwords, promises bigger than reality. However, there are still places where innovation regains its true meaning: concrete, urgent, human. I witnessed this in Tunisia.
As part of the Terna Innovation Zone Tunisia, integrated into the Global Startup Program implemented by Mind the Bridge and ELIS Innovation Hub, I met five startups - Kumulus Water, Asteroidea, Be Wireless Solutions, NextAV, and Kamioun - that are quietly redefining what deeptech can be when rooted in real everyday needs.
Each tells a story where technology serves life, not the other way around. Together, they paint a picture of a country transforming its challenges - scarcity, fragmentation, unequal infrastructure - into a springboard for a new innovation model.
Water from Air: When Necessity Becomes Invention
In Tunisia, water scarcity is not a future threat; it's a daily reality. That's why Kumulus Water's technology has a poetic touch: compact, solar-powered units that condense air humidity to produce drinking water. Already deployed in Tunisia, France, and Saudi Arabia, these devices prove that deeptech can be both local and global, sustainable and replicable. Here, innovation responds to a vital need, not a trend.
Reinventing Urban Spaces for Energy Transition
After water, energy is the second frontier. Asteroidea crosses it by rethinking a mundane space: parking lots. Its data-driven, connected platform transforms parking lots into intelligent mobility hubs, integrating ticketless access, digital payment, and electric charging stations. This approach, remarkably simple, illustrates a often-forgotten truth: innovating doesn't always mean inventing from scratch. It's often about improving what already exists.
Efficiency: A New Source of Energy
The same pragmatic logic drives Be Wireless Solutions, specializing in energy and water optimization through IoT and artificial intelligence. Their system monitors consumption, detects inefficiencies, and can reduce waste by up to 30%. In contexts where building new infrastructure is costly, improving existing ones becomes the most intelligent - and sustainable - form of innovation.
Data in Service of a Cleaner Planet
From soil to satellites, NextAV uses artificial intelligence for environmental transparency. Through AI-enhanced satellite imaging, the startup detects methane leaks, oil spills, and other pollutants, offering a scalable tool to monitor and reduce industrial impact. As global markets align with ESG indicators and carbon trading, these technologies become the backbone of environmental credibility. That such a solution emerges in Tunisia, at the crossroads of Africa and Europe, speaks volumes about the maturity of its innovation ecosystem.
Digitizing the Informal Economy
Lastly, Kamioun applies the same realistic spirit to the street. Its B2B platform connects neighborhood shops with suppliers, digitizing a sector still largely offline. In a country where informal trade dominates, Kamioun not only modernizes logistics but also fosters economic inclusion. Each recorded order, each collected data point contributes to formalizing a commercial fabric that constitutes the beating heart of the Tunisian economy.
A Common Thread: Innovation Anchored in Reality
What links these five startups is not their technology, but their perspective. All operate at the intersection of the possible and the necessary, turning constraints into opportunities, problems into prototypes. They remind us that true innovation is not born from abundance, but from relevance. Tunisian entrepreneurs are not seeking to create unicorns; they are building resilient, efficient, and useful businesses - camels, to use the famous metaphor.
As international investors increasingly seek impact projects rooted in reality, they may discover that the next wave of innovation won't come from Silicon Valley or Shenzhen, but from Tunis, Sfax, or Sousse - where technology ceases to be an end and becomes a means.
Connecting to Understand
Tunisia once again positions itself as a bridge economy: not only between continents but between two visions of innovation - the one that dreams and the one that acts.
Want to discover it closer? Don't miss the opportunity to dive into this ecosystem during the Terna Innovation Zone Tunis Forum 2025, organized by The Dot on November 27.
— Alberto Onetti Alberto Onetti is Chairman of Mind the Bridge and a professor at the University of Insubria. A serial entrepreneur, he has founded three startups, including Funambol, one of the top five Italian scaleups in terms of funding. He is recognized as a leading international expert in open innovation and has extensive experience in designing and managing open innovation projects - venture client, venture building, intrapreneurship, corporate venture capital - for large multinational companies. He also works as an advisor and trainer on these topics. Onetti regularly publishes contributions in several international specialized media outlets.
