Yassine Borchani, 32, is the manager of Figo Pharma, a food-supplement laboratory in Sfax that produces 100%-natural supplements with herbs and minerals such as basil, magnesium, and copper.
Yassine developed a passion for entrepreneurship while studying at the University of Quebec in Canada. During his studies, he began working as a consultant at a university start-up incubator program. This pushed him to begin exploring the start-up eco-system in his home, Tunisia, and look for opportunities to start his own project.
The perfect opportunity presented itself when Yassine’s sister, Emna Borchani, decided to launch her own company. Emna, who has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s in entrepreneurship, saw an opening in the natural-supplement market. She conducted a feasibility study of the market, took a training program in medicinal plants/herbs, and then wrote a business plan for Figo Pharma. When launching, Emna oversaw sales, and Yassine soon joined as technical director, and later manager.
At first, Figo Pharma sold just three magnesium and algae-based food supplements with a team of five employees, subcontracting its production process to another pharmaceutical laboratory. As it began to expand however, it realized it needed to optimize its administrative processes and bring production in house.
To achieve this goal, JOBS helped the company implement an enterprise resource planning system, enabling it to better track its operations and manage its databases. At the same time, Figo Pharma focused on bringing the full production process in house, thus improving its margins and product quality. However, unexpectedly, the COVID-19 pandemic threw the company a curve ball, forcing it to close production for more than two months and drop its commercial operations at a critical time. As a result, it had to delay its planned investment in machines and equipment.
To help it bounce back from this setback, JOBS awarded Figo Pharma a grant to purchase a capsule-filling machine, thus reducing its reliance on subcontractors and enabling it to increase its production capacity.
Since JOBS’ grant award, Figo Pharma has expanded its product range, adding new immune-boosting and cold-prevention products, while creating three new jobs.
“At first, we had challenges operating in an industry that is not well established in Tunisia. Through perseverance and the support of the right partners, we were able to move forward with our project.”
Emna Borchani
Founder – Figo Pharma
“We have established a fully functional production laboratory, enabling us to manufacture our own products and provide production services to other food-supplement companies."
Yassine Borchani
Manager – Figo Pharma
