The Innovation Hub Partners with the 2022 SA Innovation Summit

SA Innovation Summit23 September 2022

The Innovation Hub, the innovation agency of the Gauteng Province is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency. It was established by the Gauteng Provincial Government through its Department of Economic Development to promote economic development and competitiveness of Gauteng through fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.

TIH offers several incubation programmes in the Bioeconomy (agro processing and pharmaceutical), Smart Industries (ICT and advanced manufacturing) and Green Economy (Water purification, waste management and renewable energy). In addition, The Innovation Hub operates a range of enterprise development, skills development and innovation enabling programmes both in the science park and throughout the Gauteng region.

PROGRAMMES OF THE INNOVATION HUB

eKASILABS PROGRAMME

The eKasiLabs Programme is an extension of The Innovation Hub’s service offering. It is micro innovation hub facilities spread across the 5 economic corridors in Gauteng where we foster and cultivate a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in townships. The facilities are located in Mohlakeng, Sebokeng, Garankuwa, Soweto, Tembisa, Alexandra, Mamelodi, Kagiso, Kathorus and Mabopane.

We have two development programmes in skills and enterprise development where we support entrepreneurs with the following:

Business Development support
Mentoring (both technical and non-technical)
Commercialisation and market development support
Value Added service such Intellectual property and other legal service advisory
Co-creation facilities that include hotdesking, training facilities and boardrooms with a professional appeal for the use of entrepreneurs
Access to financial support
Access to Fabrication laboratory that can be used for prototyping and development of various applicable products for entrepreneurs.

The programme is focused on entrepreneurs based in Gauteng townships with emphasis on innovative solutions with potential to impact different spheres of society such as business, government, and civil societies.

CLIMATE INNOVATION CENTRE SOUTH AFRICA

The Climate Innovation Centre of South Africa (CICSA) which is part of the Green economy unit at The Innovation Hub, in partnership with the World Bank’s infoDev and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)’S Green Fund, have been working in collaboration to provide business development support to start ups within the energy, water and waste management sectors. The programme (CICSA) has seen to the success of numerous entrepreneurs and businesses which have been solutions driven to concerns of the green economy.

Focus Sectors

Energy
Water
Waste

BIOPARK@GAUTENG

BioPark Business Incubator provides business development support to start-ups in the health (biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics, indigenous knowledge-based neutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, cosmetics), agriculture (agro-/food-processing, bioprocessing, smart agriculture) in industrial biotechnology sectors. The support is provided in collaboration with Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) and eGoliBio Life Sciences Incubator.

Focus Sectors

Health
Agro-processing
Industrial

MAXUM SMART

Maxum Smart provides business development support to start-ups in the smart industries: ICT (e.g. internet of things, cyber security, big data and analytics, artificial intelligence) and advanced manufacturing / industry 4.0 (e.g. industrial IoT, additive manufacturing, foundry 4.0).

Focus Sectors
• ICT
• Advanced Manufacturing

MAXUM DIGITAL

Maxum Digital provides business development support to digital start-ups (gaming, animations and virtual reality) and supporting unemployed graduates as well as township youth in collaboration between TIH and Wits University. It is located at the Digital Innovation Zone in the Tshimologong precinct.

Focus areas

Gaming
Animation
Virtual Reality

TIHMC business incubation service offerings are geared towards enabling, growing and fostering start-ups that will create jobs, commercialise innovative technologies and improve the competitiveness for Gauteng Province. TIHMC offers incubated starts-ups to: