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Introducing the Innovation Fund

The reason for the Innovation Fund's existence is to promote the economic competitiveness of South Africa. This is done by investing in technological innovations and providing support to South Africans seeking Intellectual Property protection with the aim of establishing new enterprises and the expansion of existing industrial sectors to the benefit of all South Africans.


Investment Instruments

The main funding instruments of the Innovation Fund are managed by specialist business units that service the needs of inventors, innovators and business start-ups. These include:

Research and Development

This unit consists of the Technology Advancement Programme (TAP) and Missions in Technology (MiTech). TAP offers public venture capital support for projects in the late stages of research and development (i.e. where proof-of-science already exists) and are open to higher education institutions, science councils, small and medium enterprises and consortia consisting of these entities.

MiTech invest in public-private partnerships aiming to develop technological platforms that will improve the entrepreneurial competitiveness of South Africa. The co-investments are with industry players on projects identified and driven by that industry.

Commercialisation Office

The instrument of the Commercialisation Office is the Seed Fund. The Seed Fund invests in early commercialisation or business start ups so as to take a novel and inventive technology that is at the prototype stage through to the market. The Commercialisation Office also engages in strategy formulation, development of commercial route to market, due diligence and deal-structuring on behalf of the Innovation Fund.

Intellectual Property Management Office (IP Support)

The Intellectual Property Management Office manages the Innovation Fund's Patent Support Funds which are instruments targeted at SMEs and techno-entrepreneurs. These instruments are meant to assist with the costs associated with Intellectual Property support and protection.

Find out more about starting a new business with the public venture capital and Intellectual Property support offered from the Innovation Fund.