Event: GAP Innovation Competition Awards Ceremony, Thursday, 29 February 2024
Venue: The Innovation Hub and Virtual
Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour for me to address you at this prestigious awards ceremony of the 13thannual Gauteng Accelerator Program (GAP) Innovation Competition as we celebrate hard work, prowess to innovate and dedication shown by all the finalists. The 2023 cohorts will contribute to the vibrancy and resilience of the high tech entrepreneurial landscape in South Africa , building on the efforts to improve service delivery challenges experienced in our society and I therefore offer my congratulations and a special welcome to all the finalists that have made it this far. I also wish to salute all of you for honouring the call who will create new industries to solve societal problems and create wealth for South Africa.
Programme Director, It is appropriate that I start by acknowledging the efforts of The Innovation Hub for staging this magnificent event for recognising, rewarding and celebrating technology and innovation in South Africa . The purpose of a science and technology park is to advance innovation for inclusive and sustainable industrialization. The Innovation Hub continues to bring us together around the GAP Innovation Competition Awards Ceremony and encouraging us, the innovators in South Africa to innovatively find ways to provide solutions to societal challenges and assisting both government and private sectors to do business smarter, faster, more effective and improve innovation capabilities in our society . When it comes to solving societal challenges of today as well as driving the successes of tomorrow, the primary force at work is that human drive we call “innovation”. The objective of the GAP Innovation Competitions is to support Gauteng in becoming an innovative and economically competitive province and a leader in sustainable technologies by nurturing and supporting local innovations. The competition is one of the initiatives proposed in the Gauteng Innovation and Knowledge Economy Strategy (GIKES) to advance innovation to improve service delivery for local and provincial government including industry . The competitions contribute to the growth of The Innovation Hub’s Enterprise Development programmes by serving as a pipeline for the winners to be awarded the incubation and funding support at The Innovation Hub’s incubation programmes such as Maxum Smart, Climate Innovation Centre South Africa, BioPark@Gauteng and eKasiLabs which is The Innovation Hu’s facilities available at Gauteng townships as part of the Township Economy Revitalisation.
The Global Innovation Competitiveness Report for the year 2023 indicates that the top 10 countries in the Innovation Index are Switzerland, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, United States of America, Finland, Singapore, Denmark, Germany and Republic of Korea. Brazil is ranked 49, India 40, China 10, and South Africa 59. Ladies and gentleman based on this report , we still have a lot of work to do as South Africans to ensure that we increase our rating in the GIC report and if we are to improve the Gauteng province’s economic growth and development. Growing the economy implies innovating continuously so that goods and services are affordable to the people of South Africa. It means government playing its role in creating an enabling ecosystem to foster innovation and entrepreneurship.
I am pleased today because all the finalists have the unique ability to see opportunities where others do not see them, ability to organise themselves to take advantage of their ideas and to bring their ideas to fruition. We as government are excited about your concepts because South Africa needs innovative approaches for energy security , we must as part of the energy mix grow renewable energy projects and develop efficient and affordable green and clean technologies. We have an opportunity to leverage on the ICT infrastructure developments, where entrepreneurs like those represented in the audience can support government in programs around artificial intelligence and big data. Our water sector has encountered numerous challenges with regards to clean water in the communities , and innovation that will enable efficient water cleaning to ensure that consumption by societies are not detrimental to our health are key to this sector. With the implementation of the National Health Insurance in South Africa , there is a large need for innovative technologies to address service delivery and tackle therapeutic areas that have had a significant impact on the health of our people.
As a province, we cannot achieve our innovation goals by working alone. We need to increase our R&D productivity and increase the number of science and engineering graduates from our educational institutions. The only way to build the country’s innovative capacity is through partnership between the public sector, private sector, and academic institutions as well as our international partners. Critical to this partnership are our entrepreneurs, who through their tenacity, drive and passion, are able to transform the economic and social standing of our province.
Distinguished Guests
With this competition we have managed to make significant strides in inculcating a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in our city region and since 2011, the five categories of GAP have attracted more than 3500 entries and enabled us to invest over R24,3 million in seed funding and incubation support to over 150 startups. This is highly encouraging; although we believe that much more can and still needs to be done. We need to increase our investment into R&D and increase the number of science and engineering graduates from our educational institutions. The only way to build our innovative capacity is through partnerships between the public sector, private sector, and academic institutions as well as international partners. Critical to embracing innovation within society is supporting and celebrating entrepreneurship.
I congratulate all the finalists and wish you all the very best in your endeavours going forward, which we are hopeful will contribute positively and meaningfully to the economy of our city region.
Some of the past notable winners of this very competition include:
Key Highlights Post GAP (Impact)
The company’s accolades include winning the GAP Medical award and completing its incubation phase in 2021. Cabblow Studios currently extends its reach through collaborations with Dreamscape Media, with a global presence spanning 60 countries. Moreover, their work is accessible in the United States through KweliTV, a prominent black-owned streaming service renowned for its global coverage. This partnership has flourished for over two years, expanding the studio’s international reach.
Key Highlights Post GAP (Impact) –
Their incubation journey at TIH allowed them to comprehend intellectual property (IP) management through mentorship and seminars, which led to one of their critical achievements: attaining full patent ownership rights of their technology, an independent synthetic biotech company. Bubbo BioInnovation also successfully leveraged additional funding from dtic (THRIP award), which helped them achieve more business milestones, especially prototype finalisation. The company has also secured a manufacturing space at the BioPark Phase 2 Building. The company is driven towards easy access to Disruptive Innovative Technologies in the African Healthcare market and aspires to be one of the SA Bio Biotech Companies that trade on the JSE.
We-X combines various software in order to provide customers with real-time/immediate engineering design, financial analysis, cost saving amount, and a quote.
Impact: oversized funding of R14M with external partners, current sales pipeline of over R145M. During their incubation they created 10 jobs.
Impact: They have a hazardous waste license for the Boksburg site. They were able to raise more that R8 million rand of external funding. They created 28 jobs. They got an exclusive license from UKZN to commission and commercialize a chemical processing plant.
Impact: The company also provides valuable employment opportunities to vulnerable members of his community, training them to build houses using sustainable construction methods. “They train women in the local community by teaching them how to manufacture sustainable bricks using sand and 10% cement. This method both costs less and is three times faster to manufacture.
Loo Afrique is a manufacturer of Innovative Water & Sanitation Solutions; with an aim to improve hygiene, save water and incorporate grey water usage in everyday living, their toilets are made from porcelain and once it cracks you need to replace it. This means that the people who need to use them at schools or malls can’t use them until they’re replaced. Loo Afrique’s V-cistern is a three-litre flushing toilet system that comes fitted with a hand-wash basin. Their toilet system is used in early child development centres and most schools in Gauteng.
These entrepreneurs amongst others are specialists in their various fields, some environmental scientists and others engineers who have applied their academic research in responding to challenges experienced by government and private sector to impact the livelihood of our citizens.
The calibre of entries into the competition demonstrates that there is capacity and capability in our country. It is our desire that these innovations that we are acknowledging and celebrating tonight become commercialized and make their way into the mainstream Gauteng economy. With the unemployment rate so high, we need these innovations to stimulate growth and create jobs.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the Technology Innovation Agency and Emory University, particularly for their contribution and support in making sure that the programme becomes a success. We also want to thank the German International Cooperation (GIZ), National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO), SANASP who are coming onboard as the new partners to ensure that the programme becomes a very oiled engine to improve innovation capabilities and uptake. Our gratitude also goes to our local and international adjudicators who are present here this afternoon , for their hard work in assessing and adjudicating the submissions efficiently to make sure that all processes are transparent and fair.
It is my wish and my vision that the creative work done by The Innovation Hub and by all our innovators, will permeate through all of Government - national, provincial, and local - resulting in a high standard of service delivery and a public service that makes all South Africans proud and enable all the innovators to compete globally. Ultimately it is when innovation from South Africa dominate world markets that we will be successful . This will generate prosperity at home and the promise of a united democratic non racial and prosperous South Africa.
I encourage you to learn from these innovators whose innovations are awarded here today and mark them for future reference as their innovations will be the next big thing for improving service delivery together because together, all of us here in this ceremony can and must do more for our country.
I hope that you will all have a memorable afternoon , enjoy yourselves responsibly.
I thank you.
