2017 GAP Innovation Competition winners revealed

McLean Sibanda, CEO of The Innovation Hub

Established by The Innovation Hub, the innovation agency of the Gauteng province, the Gauteng Accelerator Programme (GAP) seeks innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs that are working on novel ideas that will improve the efficiency of government service delivery, increase the competitiveness of the local economy and enhance the quality of life of ordinary citizens. Categories are in the ICT, Medical, Biosciences, Green economy and Township economy.

In selecting the winners, an independent panel of judges considered business strategy, technology, market, the team, and impact of the technology. Winners were announced during a gala dinner awards that was held at The Innovation Hub during the Global Entrepreneurship Week on Thursday, 16 November 2017.

“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," said acting MEC Faith Mazibuko, Department of Economic Development, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development.

"We are excited about the innovations and the calibre of the winners that came out of this year’s GAP Innovation Competitions, we are looking forward to taking this innovation forward to improve service delivery in government and the private sector. The winners will be incubated at The Innovation Hub’s Maxum Business Incubator and receive specialist product development support from the Climate Innovation Centre, mLab, BioPark and the eKasiLabs facilities which are located in the townships," said McLean Sibanda, CEO of The Innovation Hub.

The winners in the ICT category are:

1. Multifractal Semiconductors Multifractal semiconductors is a deep tech/frontier tech startup that has developed enabling technologies for single-chip low-cost high-bandwidth millimet re-wave wireless telecommunications systems such as 5G cellular.
2. ejoobi ejoobi is a platform where cloud services meet SMS and USSD. ejoobi allows job seekers to sms their CVs without having to use the internet.
3. MCX Technologies is a controlled environment agriculture (CEA) systems manufacturer.
4. ProAutomation PoolSense uses IoT to simplify pool maintenance.

The winners in the Green category are:

1. Ewasteafrica: Recycling of light bulbs and management options for lamp waste disposal.
2. Business in a bag: A social entrepreneurship company that uses waterless cleaning technology to assist individuals in creating their own businesses.
3. FerBiGas Bio-Degenerator tanks: An upright medium-pressure vessel that is sold fully assembled. Loaded with decaying matter, it will produce methane gas for utilisation and compost as a by-product for gardens or crops.

The winners in the Medical category are:

1. PRD Solutions: The Para-Tube is a wheelchair seating, with a built in toilet that retro fits into any existing wheelchair.
2. PydynamixKwameEMR is a medical device integrator and software development company that intends to design, patent and market medical solutions related to integrated clinical environment (ICE) surgical niche markets.
3. The Austics Cardiology Stethoscope is a high-end stethoscope. Along with the existing function of auscultation, the stethoscope will include options to record, amplify and store patient sounds on a mobile application.

The winners in the GAP Bioscience category are:

1. Field Lab believes that anyone should be able to perform accurate, rapid biological tests regardless of the infrastructure available, with affordable equipment.
2. LifeBiotech: Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is a widely used growth supplement for cell culture media in biomedical research and pathology laboratories for diagnostic purposes.
3. TuFat feed is a high fat feed used in animal models to study the pathophysiology of chronic diseases.

Winners of the Gauteng Accelerator Township Economy are:

1. Technological Plumbing Solutions is a plumbing company that offers sewage and geyser spill reporting monitors that act as a security feature guarding and reporting on geyser leaks and sewage spills as they start to happen.
2. Ispani Group is an on-demand brand activation platform that enables corporates to be represented directly through brand activators in the communities in which they live.
3. Onke Solutions has designed a mobile app called Bantu Words. It’s a crossword puzzle that is in South African vernacular languages and is a new concept for promoting various cultures and a trend of using African languages in mobile technology.
4. DiGi Couriers is an app-centric courier company where the public can register their vehicles using the app to become delivery service providers.