Engineering News — December 08, 2017

T

he Small Enterprise Development

Agency (Seda), under the Department

of Small Business Development, is

leveraging the capabilities of hardware tech­

nology investor and incubator Savant Tech­

nologies to help science and technology

inven tors start businesses.

The partnership was launched at the Savant

offices, in Cape Town, in October. Engagement

between Seda and Savant started in 2015

to enable the latter to focus on scaling up

opera tions and broadening the pipeline to

include innovators in the broader Cape Town

com mu n it y.

Entrepreneurship plays a critical role in eco­

nomic growth and improving the standards

of living in many countries, including South

Africa. Business owners provide opportunities

for innovation and increased employment, in

addition to the creation of new markets, says

Seda CEO Mandisa Tshikwatamba.

“While software has garnered much of the

investment and attention in the tech space,

hardware inventors are slowly gaining ground

internationally. Hardware technology incuba­

tors, like Savant, are looking for the creator

and, ultimately, producer of the next Rooivalk

attack helicopter, Kreepy Krauly pool cleaner,

Tesla electric car and, perhaps, even the next

SpaceX,” she says.

Incubated Enterprise

Savant is a specialised, commercially focused

hardware technology incubator founded in

2005 by CEO Nick Allen.

The busi ness model, which includes an

equity stake in the incubated enterprise, was

designed to nur ture South African startups in

science and technology innovation by focusing

on projects with global market appeal and

strong intellectual property protection, as well

as technology capable of meeting the require­

ments of the target market.

To date, Savant has secured R106­million in

startup and seed funding. Of the startups

incubated, 88.9% have become fully fledged

businesses and the total revenue earned by

Savant­incubated companies is R2.51­billion.

Some of the companies supply retailers

including Woolworths, Dischem, Spar and

Clicks.

Prior to founding Savant, Allen, a qualified

engi neer and veteran entrepreneur of South

Africa’s postdemocracy development eco­

system, worked for public and private

small, medium­sized and microenterprise

incubators.

The experience led him to identify untapped

potential in a segment of South African inven­

tors, namely those who wanted to build busi­

nesses around their innovative ideas related

to physical hardware technology, but lacked

the necessary know­how to start, run and scale

the enterprises.

Additionally, hardware technology, com­

pared with software development, is labour

intensive.

“Contributing to much­needed economic

growth in South Africa, the ‘startup’

hard ware renaissance is well on its way

to cultivating a new breed of job­creating

manufacturing busi nesses that have a bias

towards innovation, con tinuous improvement

and exploring new mar ket opportunities,” said

Tsh i k wat a mba.

42 ENGINEERING NEWS | December 8–14, 2017 RA

NEWS&INSIGHT

BUSINESS INCUBATION

Nurturing Inventors

Small business agency in venture to incubate tech hardware startups

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