South African universities unveil co-investment plans

University of Cape Town (UCT) and Stellenbosch University will co-invest with the R150 ($9.9m) South Africa government-sponsored University Technology Fund (UTF) to increase the initiative’s overall investment in spinouts.
UCT is putting up R20m ($1.3m) from its Evergreen Fund and could also provide additional seed investments, while the size of Stellenbosch’s contribution was not disclosed.
The official announcement confirms media reports last week surrounding a potential second close for UTF supported by unnamed investment funds and development finance institutions.
UTF has so far been backed by the Department of Science and Technology’s innovation agency and the $96m SA SME Fund, a public-private fund-of-funds partnership.
Anita Nel, chief director of innovation and business development at Innovus, the tech transfer office of Stellenbosch University, said: “The UTF is a first for the African continent and we are incredibly proud to be part of what will be a significant game-changer for universities wishing to bring their technologies to the market.
“We are very thankful to Tom Hockaday, who headed up the technology transfer office of University of Oxford, and Tony Raven, the CEO of Cambridge Enterprise, for the many hours they have spent sharing their extensive university early-stage fund experience with us and for the invaluable advice they have given us in this regard.
“It was a privilege to work with such experienced individuals.”
Evergreen Fund was founded in 2017 with alumni donations and has so far made a total of four investments.
UCT also operates the early-stage Innovation Builder fund, providing R500,000 ($32,000) to de-risk nascent research in alliance with its tech transfer office, Research Contracts and Innovation.
The TTO is now expanding with plans to recruit five additional team members, leveraging additional government funding awarded through the National Intellectual Property Management Office.