Open Startup, a pan-African organization supporting entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems, is shifting its focus toward science and deep technology ventures as it enters its second decade of operations, seeking to help research-led startups bridge the gap between laboratories and commercial markets.
The Tunisia-founded organization unveiled “The Science Road,” a strategy designed to accelerate startups emerging from fields such as healthcare, climate technology, artificial intelligence and related scientific disciplines. The initiative combines startup acceleration programs, financing support and institutional partnerships aimed at moving research-driven ventures closer to commercial scale.
The launch coincides with Open Startup’s 10-year anniversary, marking a transition from its early roots as a university entrepreneurship initiative into a broader pan-African platform focused on investment readiness and ecosystem development.
Science and deep-tech startups have historically faced steeper barriers to growth than software-focused ventures, often requiring longer development cycles, specialized expertise and early-stage funding before reaching market viability. Those structural challenges have left many African research-led innovations struggling to progress beyond early development stages.
Open Startup said its new approach will simplify support through two pathways: one targeting pre-seed innovators working to transform scientific ideas into investable companies, and another aimed at seed-stage ventures seeking to scale technologies with broader commercial potential.
The organization is also introducing Openers First, an investment arm intended to provide early financing to selected ventures emerging from its platform. The move is designed to strengthen funding access for startups navigating the transition between pre-seed and seed-stage development while also contributing to the organization’s long-term sustainability.
“As we enter our second decade, we do so with greater maturity, a broader continental footprint, and a renewed ambition,” Founder and Chief Executive Officer Houda Ghozzi said in a statement.
Founded in 2016, Open Startup says it has supported more than 3,000 founders and over 1,000 startups across more than 20 African countries. The organization has also built networks of mentors, advisors and ecosystem partners spanning universities, investors and corporations.
The latest strategy places increased emphasis on research institutions and cross-border collaboration. Open Startup said it plans to strengthen partnerships across African innovation ecosystems, including collaborations involving institutions in Tunisia and South Africa, with the aim of helping scientific discoveries move beyond academic environments and into wider adoption.
The move reflects a broader shift across African technology ecosystems, where attention is increasingly turning toward deep-tech sectors viewed as capable of delivering long-term industrial and economic impact beyond traditional startup models.