The South African Business and Technology Incubation Association (SABTIA) was launched in Cape Town yesterday with the aim of developing new enterprises in public private partnerships.
The association is a network of government-funded non-profit incubators, support programmes and similar private organisations. According to SABTIA, each programme or organisation offers a specific mix of infrastructure and support services for small and medium enterprises, in order to turn their existing ideas into successful businesses.
SABTIA will develop and sponsor activities, raise funds, lobby policy-makers, and develop and promote best practice for the promotion of business incubation in SA. Its operational headquarters will initially be based in Pretoria but this will rotate on a regional basis every year.
Jill Sawers, who has been elected SABTIA chairman, says the association will also act as the SA node for international business incubation entry, styled in some ways on the NBIA in the US and the UKBIA model in the UK. Both of these organisations have assisted with the establishment of SABTIA.
Sawers says SABTIA will draw together more than 20 similar domestic initiatives, including the two major government-funded incubator programmes of Godisa and the Department of Trade and Industry, and private incubators and technology development houses.
"The spread of focus with the members includes sectoral-focused technology incubators such as Chemin in Port Elizabeth, which focuses on fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals to the more traditional agri-based initiative in Nelspruit," she says.
The SABTIA board was elected yesterday and it consists of Sawers (The Innovation Hub) as chairman, Ben Zaaiman (Softstart), Peter Breitenbach (Acorn Technologies), Michael Reddy (Furntech), Allon Raiz (Raizcorp) and Philip Marais (Upstarts Innovation Incubator).
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