The Innovation Hub has announced the winners of the 2019 Gauteng Accelerator Programme (GAP) Innovation Competition.
Each year The Innovation Hub, Gauteng province’s innovation agency, hosts an competition and awards ceremony in line with the Global Entrepreneurship Week celebrations (which took place between 18 and 24 November this year).
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This year’s edition was held in Johannesburg on 21 November and recognised innovators across the ICT, medical, biosciences, green economy and township economy categories.
The GAP Innovation Competition has been held annually since 2011
The Innovation Hub said in a statement sent to Ventureburn last week that the winners will receive commercialisation support and seed funding, as well as year-long incubation support at The Innovation Hub’s business incubators.
These incubators include Maxum Smart, Climate Innovation Centre, BioPark@Gauteng and the eKasiLabs facilities which are in the townships.
ITC category
Olova, a single payment digital platform for multiple public transport systems, won first place in the ICT category.
LiTT Africa and Honest Care were placed second and third, respectively. This while Boolyx Edu-Tech won fourth place. Geometrorail was given special recognition for its solution.
Medical category
Cabblow Studios won first prize in the medical category for its original animated health content. Magitech Science won second place and University of Pretoria Malherbe Imaging was placed third.
Jumping Kids was given special recognition in the medical category.
Bio-sciences category
Sawubona Mycelium won first place in the bio-sciences category. The startup produces high-value ingredients and extracts from mycelium fermentation for use in food, beverages, cosmetics, pharma, dairy and laboratories.
University of KwaZulu Natal’s Amasu Technologies was awarded second place in the category, with University of Johannesburg’s Organic Works coming third.
CSIR Mvelo Drink and UP’s Blyde Botanics won special recognition in the category.
Green category
First place in the Green category went to Sanineat, a company that grows low-cost drought-resistant moringa plant at their plantations in Mpumalanga and Limpopo to manufacture affordable bio-diesel.
Bashomi Trading and Projects with Ti-teq Solutions took second and third place, respectively. Design the Future was placed fourth.
Afrika Ash Insulation won special recognition in the category.
Township Economy category
Kutsala Publishing, which aims to change the narrative for African storytelling by creating indigenous content that African children can relate to, won the Township Economy category.
Second prize was awarded to Gym Tech Guyz with Stx Worx and Uku’hamba winning second and third place, respectively.
The Race of Life Games was placed fourth, this while Mobo Greeners won special recognition in the category.
The Innovation Hub said since the inception of the GAP Innovation Competition in 2011, the competition’s five categories have attracted more than 1200 entries and invested over R14-million in seed funding and incubation support to over 77 startups.
Featured image: 2019 Gauteng Accelerator Programme (GAP) Innovation Competition winners (Supplied)
