Tunisia’s Souha Bejaoui is building a climate-tech business while learning the startup game

Souha Bejaoui, who spent more than a decade in risk management, regulatory compliance and sustainable transformation, is co-founder and CEO of ProVerdy, a Tunisian climate-tech startup that helps businesses measure carbon emissions and track environmental impact. Founded in 2024 with co-founders Rahma Abida and Hamza Bêjaoui, ProVerdy was named Startup of the Year at the Tunisia Investment Forum 2026 and operates from El Ghazala Technopark in Greater Tunis while focusing on clients across North Africa and the Middle East.

"The five month programme gave the team access to mentors and investors," the company’s participation summary reads, referring to ProVerdy’s time in the UNDP Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator in 2025.

Context: product, market and growth

ProVerdy builds software to help companies calculate their carbon footprint, track emissions and identify areas to reduce environmental impact. The startup uses regional emissions data tailored to North African and Middle Eastern markets rather than attempting to solve broader climate problems across sectors. That focus gives the company a specific commercial angle: corporate clients that must collect dispersed operational data and translate it into emissions figures for reporting or compliance.

• Founding year: 2024 (co-founders: Souha Bejaoui, Rahma Abida, Hamza Bêjaoui)
• Award: Startup of the Year, Tunisia Investment Forum 2026
• Accelerator: UNDP Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator (2025, five-month programme)
• Base: El Ghazala Technopark, Greater Tunis
• Target region: North Africa and the Middle East

UNDP says the ProVerdy team expanded from six people to eight after the accelerator programme, a modest headcount increase that underlines the company’s early-stage status despite winning a national award. The firm already serves customers in Tunisia’s financial sector and has demonstrated product-market fit sufficient to attract recognition, but it still faces the commercial challenges that many young startups confront: customer acquisition, retention and turning early sales into a sustainable revenue stream.

Bejaoui brought industry experience into the venture. Her background in risk and compliance informs how ProVerdy combines software delivery with advisory support—an important distinction because customers often need help interpreting emissions data and translating insights into operational changes.

Outlook: partnerships and the next steps

Participation in the UNDP accelerator also created international introductions. UNDP supported ProVerdy at Mobile World Congress in Doha, where the team met potential partners and investors, including Qatar Development Bank and Vodafone. For a small startup, those connections can be significant, opening conversations that go beyond local market constraints.

Still, the company’s immediate priorities are pragmatic: grow the customer base, retain the clients it has, and monetise its product while Bejaoui and her co-founders continue to learn the mechanics of fundraising, investor relations and startup scaling. As the team converts recognition into recurring revenue, ProVerdy will seek to prove that an early-stage, eight-person climate-tech outfit can sustain itself and expand across the region it targets.