Partners

seda
The Small Enterprise Development Agency (seda) is the Department of Trade of Industry's agency for supporting small business in South Africa.

SABTIA
The South African Business and Technology Incubation Association (SABTIA), embraces organisations that assist in the local training and development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs). The SMME sector is one of the key areas for job creation and economic growth in the country.

Launched in March 2004 to coordinate and promote business incubation in South Africa, SABTIA provides a forum for incubator managers and SME developers to discuss and share the challenges faced by this emerging industry, and find solutions to improving service delivery and increasing value to this critical sector of the economy.

Innovation Fund
South Africa’s national Research and Development Strategy views the Innovation Fund as the key instrument in the implementation of the strategy, perceiving its role as being closer to the marketplace in the specific development of new products, processes and services.

To this end the Innovation Fund has set itself a mission to promote the economic competitiveness of South Africa through investments in technological innovation that leads to the establishment of new enterprises, and the expansion of existing industrial sectors, to the benefit of all South Africans.

InnovUS is a management division within Stellenbosch University, which is responsible for the technology transfer and new business development on the Campus. It investigates new disclosures of business opportunities and inventions, and serves as a filter to commercialise the best ideas and initiatives in partnership with the inventors and entrepreneurs.

Commercialisation is undertaken through a combination of licensing agreements and /or equity in spin-off companies, after consultation with investors in the new initiatives. It also serves as a link in the network of teaching staff, entrepreneurs, mentors, investors and joint partners.

InnovUS also provides a range of support services to entrepreneurs and inventors from the protection of intellectual property, training and legal services to strategic planning, financial services and mentorship, among others.

eGoliBio
eGoliBio is a biotechnology incubator, and as such serves as a development conduit for the commercialisation of life sciences research, products, services and technology platforms. It seeks to attract and nurture the highest quality tenants in this niche area providing business infrastructure, strategic guidance, financial and legal advice creating an environment of learning and sharing in which information, experience and ideas are freely exchanged.  In addition, the incubator actively sources funding lines for individual tenants and/or projects and assists in the procurement and management of such funds.

eGoli BIO has as one of its goals the creation of a critical mass of biotechnologists and biotechnology organizations to stimulate the economic development of the industry in South Africa.

The South African National Biotechnology Strategy has resulted in the establishment of Cape Biotech Trust, the Biotechnology Regional Innovation Centre (BRIC) for the Western Cape.  Cape Biotech has three strategic drives in order to focus limited resources, and build the region’s biotechnology industry:

Broad-based Cluster Facilitation Interventions: A set of ongoing interventions that benefit the broader biotech community and grow the industry, viz.  Marketing; Commercialisation Skills Development; Stakeholder; Network Facilitation; Employment Equity; Funding Procurement; Pre-Seed Business Development and Funding

Focus Area Development: A long-term plan to close the major gaps in five strategically selected value chains, to yield market offerings.  The 5 value chain areas are: Point of Care Diagnostics; Nutraceuticals from Biotech Processes; Combination and Conjugate Vaccines; Drug Delivery; High Throughput Bioprospecting

Opportunistic Investment: Ongoing investment in high quality, late stage, commercial projects, which lie outside the trust’s focus areas.

The MRC has a strong scientific base, mainly in its intramural research units and the extramural units situated at a number of universities in the country. Its mission is to make a major contribution to research and research implementation on socially relevant health issues in South Africa. The translation of this research into public benefit requires effective technology development and transfer capacity combined with a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among MRC researchers. The MRC Innovation Centre (IC), previously known as the Technology Development and Transfer Group, is responsible for ensuring both of these conditions. MRC IC is set to play a leading role in the development and commercialization of technologies for application to human health needs in South Africa.

The mission of MRC Innovation Centre is to drive the innovation opportunities emanating from MRC research discovery so as to commercialize and implement sustainable health technologies for the benefit of the MRC, the inventors and society in general.

fundman
The South African funding landscape is wide and varied, with funding available from an array of private and public institutions. For a fund-seeker however, understanding this environment and approaching the most appropriate funder(s) can be a time-consuming and frustrating experience.

In order to address this issue Acorn Technologies devised the “fundman” website which is a free to all fund-seekers.  The site is designed to link South African fund-seekers (entrepreneurs or companies that need financing to start or expand their businesses) to fund-providers (suitable investors).

The interactive website incorporates an extensive and searchable database of fund-providers in South Africa, including their investment criteria and contact details, and makes these available to fund seekers at a single web location. For fund-seekers it works as follows: Fund-seekers register and then log onto the website and provide basic details of the projects and/or businesses they need funding for without needing to disclose any proprietary information. The search function then matches the project to suitable fund-providers, by matching the profile of the project to the fund-provider’s investment criteria. Fund-seekers can then view a list of the individual fund-providers that match their project, as well as the contact details of the person responsible for the fund. Access to the fundman site is offered free of charge to all fund-seekers.