The Egyptian government has finalized a new “Startup Charter,” an integrated framework designed to reset its relationship with the tech ecosystem and attract $5 billion in investments over the next five years.
The plan, confirmed by Minister of Planning and Economic Development Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, was presented to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly as a comprehensive strategy to support startup growth.
But for an ecosystem that has seen ambitious government promises fizzle out before, the key question remains: Will this time be different?
Here is a breakdown of what’s inside the new charter and the challenges it faces.
The Headline Goals
The charter’s ambitions are significant, aiming to reposition Egypt as a leading startup hub in the Middle East and Africa. The government has set several key targets:
- Investment: Attract $5 billion in investments for startups within the next five years.
- Job Creation: Generate approximately 500,000 direct and indirect jobs through these companies.
- Financing: Launch a “unified financing initiative” with a value of 50 billion EGP ($1 billion) to support company growth.
- Company Targets: This financing aims to support around 5,000 startups, with a specific goal of helping 500 of those companies attract more than $1 million in investment each.
What’s Actually in the Charter?
The plan is built on more than 80 distinct measures and policies, which emerged from consultations with over 100 stakeholders, including venture capital funds and founders.
The core components move beyond simple tax breaks and attempt to address systemic bureaucratic issues:
- A Standardized Definition: For the first time, the charter introduces a specific, unified legal definition of a “startup.” This is a critical, practical step intended to stop startups from being miscategorised as Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and to ensure government incentives are directed to the correct companies efficiently.
- Regulatory Simplification: The plan includes a “guide to government services and licenses” and promises a unified digital platform for registration. This directly targets a primary complaint from founders: a slow, complex, and expensive bureaucratic process for establishing and running a business.
- Incentives and Support: The package includes a range of government incentives, such as covering parts of the cost for technical training, offering tax breaks, and providing support through government-backed incubators and accelerators.
- Sector Focus: The charter identifies 12 priority sectors for support, including edtech, healthtech, agritech, tourism technology, and social impact technology.
Why Founders Remain Skeptical
This is not Egypt’s first attempt at a startup support package.
In 2023, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi championed a proposal for a five-year tax exemption for startups. The move was widely celebrated, but the exemption never materialized in the final legislation. Instead, a law benefiting SMEs was passed, leaving the startup community feeling sidelined as the government’s focus shifted to fiscal consolidation amid mounting economic challenges.
That history of policy resets, combined with persistent bureaucratic hurdles and crippling foreign currency shortages, has left many founders and investors wary of new announcements.
A Race Against Regional Rivals
This latest push is not happening in a vacuum. Egypt’s ecosystem, which saw a funding boom between 2021 and 2022 (with venture funding soaring from $100 million to over $800 million), is now facing intense regional competition.
Rivals like Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been aggressively courting startups and talent with generous incentives, simplified regulations, and deep pools of capital. Egypt’s charter is a clear signal that it intends to fight to regain its momentum and remain a key player in the MENA innovation race.
For now, the ecosystem is watching and waiting. The success of this new charter will not be measured by the announcement, but by its execution. If the digital platform is efficient, if the 50 billion EGP in financing is accessible without excessive red tape, and if the regulatory burdens are genuinely lifted, this could mark a genuine shift.
If not, it risks becoming just another well-intentioned plan that failed to deliver.