TIA has established a fund dubbed the Youth Technology Innovation Fund (YTIF) to promote and stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship among the youth in South Africa.
Established in 2008 in SA, The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) aims at stirring technological innovations in a move to improve the country’s economic growth and people’s quality of life via access of financial and business support resources.
The YTIF focuses on youth between the ages of 18 to 30 who have not earlier benefitted from a related initiative. Applications are open and close on the 21 December 2012.
The projects TIA will fund are diverse. They can either be new creative ideas or old projects that can be improved or developed by locals. Foreign nationals can also take part as long as they forge a win-win partnership with locals.
Under the same initiative, the fund has an Industry Matching Fund, targeted at small, medium and large companies to drive technology innovation in South Africa.
A 50 percent matching need is needed for high-end industries, while 30 percent for companies that partner with High Education Institutions or Science Councils, and companies in operation for less than less than three years have a 20 percent matching requirement.
The third fund equity fund is set aside for firms which drive technology innovations but with a lack of capital to match the TIA’s requirement or with a good track record able to secure a loan while the Technology Development Fund will be invested high yield projects by institutions such as Science Councils, High Education Institutions for research and technology development.
The Idea Development Fund gives R200k or less to entrepreneurs and small companies to aid them in patenting, uptake of technology and provides Intellectual Property rights support such as patent application design and registration and maintenance costs limited to R500K.
TIA aims at developing industries, creating sustainable jobs and invests in diverse factors like Advance manufacturing, Agriculture, Industrial Biotechnology, Health, Mining, Energy and ICT.
TIA was formed through a merger of seven innovative entities such as the Innovation Fund, Tshumisano Trust, Cape Biotech Trust, PlantBio Trust, LIFElab, BioPAD Trust, and the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy (AMTS).
