SmartXchange 2013/14 Annual Report & Launch of Innovation Seed Fund

Today, the 10th of June 2014, SmartXchange held its annual SmartXchange Stakeholder Breakfast at the Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani. This breakfast forum is held for the purpose of presenting the SmartXchange Annual Review/report to the SmartXchange strategic partners and funders which include the, eThekwini Municipality; Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda); Mict Seta & Technology Innovations Agency (Tia). This year's forum included the official launch of the 10 year celebration of existence of SmartXchange, where three SmartXchange members were awarded certificates for 10 Years of service excellence to SmartXchange, namely, Mr Themba Ngcobo, current Chairperson of the Board of SmartXchange; Mr Jonathan Naidoo, current Chief Executive Officer of SmartXchange and Dr Rajesh Neerachand, current Central Services Manager of SmartXchange.
The eThekwini Municipality speaker, Councillor Logie Naidoo graced this event with his presence and gave a keynote message to the delegation, highlighting that SmartXchange is indeed a "flagship project" of the eThekwini Municipality. Mr JB Magwaza, a patron of SmartXchange, presented a message on behalf of the SmartXchange patrons acknowledging the excellent partnerships that exist between SmartXchange and the private and public sector. The chairperson of the SmartXchange Board of Directors, Mr Themba Ngcobo, also addressed the forum and gave recognition to the excellent work that is being done by the SmartXchange leadership, SmartXchange operations team and last but not least, the SmartXchange SMME's, which has lead to the accomplishment of pleasing results year after year. Jonathan Naidoo, SmartXchange CEO, presented the SmartXchange Annual Report which placed emphasizes on SmartXchange being a "good story to tell". Within the report, Jonathan highlighted the three major awards that SmartXchange received in the year 2013, namely; The Alec Rogoff B-BBEE Award, The FNB KZN Top Business Award & the Seda/dti Best Incubator award 2013. He also, briefly, shared the new vision of the SmartXchange incubator, which places great emphasizes on the replication of the SmartXchange model which will be extended to other sectors either than ICT.
The highlight of the breakfast was when Dr Bongi, from the Technology Innovations Agency (Tia,) presented a R5 million cheque to SmartXchange for the, "SmartXchange, Tia Innovation Seed Investment Fund. Dr Bongi shared with the forum that, "Seed Funding or Angel investors have always been a challenge in the South African landscape. Stories are often heard of people with great ideas being frustrated by a lack of financial resources that becomes a barrier preventing the dream to become a reality".
Fortunately the Launch of the R 5 m Seed Investment Fund for MICTE innovation provides this ray of hope that will enable MICTE ideas and innovations to become realities. The fund is aimed at assisting technology based SMMEs in bridging financing requirements to take their innovative ideas to market. More specifically the Seed Fund will be used to support SMME's and entrepreneurs in the ICT  innovation space that may require assistance with the following: Initial proof of concept; Product, Process (comprehensive technology package) and Prototype development; IP Support (Patent Protection), Sourcing of IP opinions; Production of market samples and/or associated testing, analytical data and    method development and specification sheet development; Refining and implementing designs; Conducting field studies; Support of certification activities; Piloting and scale-up and techno-economic evaluation; Detailed primary market research; Business Plan Development; Incubation support from  SmartXchange.
SmartXchange is highly impressed and grateful to have received an investment of this kind which assists towards building an innovative tomorrow. SmartXchange expresses its heartfelt appreciation to all its funding partners and strategic partners from both private & public sectors and the SMME's for their continued support and is confident that, working together, SmartXchange will grow to celebrate another 10 more years to come.

http://kzntopbusiness.co.za/site/top-business-sector/SmartXchange/page/9903