Algeria’s New Scale-up Label: How Decree 25-311 Rewards High-Growth Startups

A New Tier Slots Into Algeria’s Labeling Architecture

For five years, Algeria’s startup labeling system recognized two things: a company was either a labeled “Startup” or it was working toward that label as an “Innovative Project.” That binary worked well at the formation stage, but it left a gap at the top. A labeled startup that grew quickly, hired hundreds of people, and started exporting was still wearing the same label as a two-person team that had just incorporated. Decree 25-311 closes that gap by introducing a distinct Scale-up category for companies that have, in the decree’s own language, moved beyond the launch phase and are demonstrating rapid growth.

The change arrived through Executive Decree 25-311, signed by Prime Minister Saïfi Ghrieb on December 1, 2025 and published in Journal Officiel n°81. Rather than create a separate program, the decree amends the original Decree 20-254 of September 15, 2020 — the text that established Algeria’s National Labeling Committee. That committee, which previously oversaw startups, innovative projects, and incubators, now has a fourth thing to certify: scale-ups. Legal analysis of the decree frames it as a structural reinforcement of the existing framework rather than a parallel regime — a deliberate design choice that keeps the whole system under one committee and one portal.

This matters for how policy compounds. When a country builds a labeling regime tier by tier instead of stacking unrelated programs, each new layer inherits the credibility, the governance, and the data of the layers below it. A scale-up does not start from zero — it builds on a startup label it already earned.

The Criteria Are Quantitative, Not Discretionary

The most consequential feature of the Scale-up label is how specifically it is defined. Many countries hand out growth-stage designations on the basis of vague “high potential” language that leaves enormous room for interpretation. Algeria went the other way. To qualify for the Scale-up label, a company must cumulatively meet three conditions: it must be an Algerian-registered legal entity built on an innovative product, service, or business model; it must show revenue growth of at least 20% over the past three years; and it must dedicate a minimum of 3% of its revenue or capital to research and development.

Those two numbers — 20% growth and 3% R&D — do a lot of work. The growth threshold filters for companies that have proven product-market fit and are scaling demand, not just surviving. The R&D floor ensures the label rewards genuine innovation capacity rather than companies that simply got bigger. According to the reporting around the decree, applicants document this through the national Startup.dz platform, submitting performance indicators, a three-minute video demonstrating company growth, intellectual-property records, and evidence of international expansion or exports.

The label is valid for four years and renewable, with renewal tied to demonstrated performance. That renewability is its own policy signal: a scale-up cannot earn the status once and coast. It has to keep growing to keep the badge.

What the Label Connects To

A label is only as valuable as what it unlocks. According to the official APS announcement of the Scale-up label, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Startups and Micro-enterprises — led by Minister Noureddine Ouadah — frames the new tier as enabling startups to access reinforced support and stronger development opportunities at both national and international levels. In practice, the labeling framework is the gateway to Algeria’s startup support measures: fiscal advantages, institutional support, and access to state aid mechanisms that the 2,300 currently labeled startups already benefit from.

The Scale-up tier sits inside a much larger push. The Startup.dz platform now counts more than 7,800 registered firms, roughly 20% of them created by members of the Algerian diaspora, and the government has set a public target of 20,000 startups by 2029. The Scale-up label is the mechanism that gives the ecosystem’s most successful companies somewhere to go — a recognized next rung rather than a ceiling.

What Algerian Founders and Policymakers Should Do

The decree is signed and in force, which means the practical question is no longer whether to engage but how to position for it. Here is how the most affected stakeholders should respond.

1. Audit your three-year growth and R&D numbers before you apply

The Scale-up criteria are arithmetic, so treat them as an internal checklist first. Pull your last three years of revenue and confirm the trajectory clears the 20% growth bar; then calculate what share of revenue or capital you actually directed to research and development against the 3% floor. If you are close but short on R&D, the fix may be reclassifying engineering and product work that already qualifies rather than spending more. Founders who arrive at the Startup.dz portal with these numbers already audited will move through review far faster than those who treat the application as the moment to start counting.

2. Build the evidence file the renewal model demands, not just the application

Because the label is valid for four years and renewable on performance, the smart move is to build documentation as an ongoing system rather than a one-time submission. Set up a quarterly cadence to capture client and user growth metrics, fundraising history, patents and registered software, and export or international-expansion milestones. The three-minute growth video the platform requires is easier to produce when you have been logging the underlying data all along. Treat the renewal in year four as the real deadline and the initial application as a checkpoint.

3. Map the label to the specific support measures it unlocks

A label is leverage only if you use it. Before applying, identify which fiscal advantages, institutional channels, and state-aid measures the Scale-up status actually opens for a company your size, and sequence your applications accordingly. The framework deliberately keeps everything under one committee and one portal, so the administrative path from label to benefit is shorter than it would be across separate programs. Founders should engage the Ministry of Knowledge Economy’s support channels early to understand exactly which doors the new tier opens for them.

4. For policymakers, watch the graduation funnel, not just the headcount

The ecosystem’s headline metric — 20,000 startups by 2029 — measures formation. The Scale-up label introduces a second, more telling metric: how many labeled startups successfully graduate to scale-up status each year. That conversion rate is the real health signal of the ecosystem, because it shows whether early-stage companies are actually maturing or merely accumulating. Tracking and publishing that funnel would add a valuable feedback loop to the framework.

Where This Fits in Algeria’s 2026 Policy Trajectory

Decree 25-311 is best understood not as a standalone announcement but as one move in a steady, building sequence. The 2020 Startup Act created the labeling machinery; subsequent measures added tax benefits and a diaspora on-ramp; capital-markets reforms opened a listing path for labeled companies; and now the Scale-up tier gives the framework a high-growth category it previously lacked. Each layer slots into the same committee, the same portal, and the same data spine — which is precisely why the system keeps gaining coherence as it grows.

The honest read is that the framework is maturing in the right direction. The criteria are specific enough to be credible, the renewability keeps incentives aligned with continued performance, and the single-committee design keeps administrative friction low. The next layer to build is depth — deeper capital pools and richer support measures so that earning the Scale-up label translates into materially faster growth. But as a piece of policy architecture, Decree 25-311 does exactly what good ecosystem-building does: it gives a country’s most promising companies a clearly marked next step, and it rewards them for taking it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources & Further Reading

• Further Reading
• Startups : création du label Scale-up — Algérie Éco
• Du nouveau pour les startups en Algérie : ce qui change — TSA Algérie
• Économie de la connaissance : création du label Scale-up — APS
• Création du label Scale-up : l’Algérie renforce son dispositif de labellisation des start-ups — Legal Doctrine