Stellenbosch University’s (SU’s) new incubator dedicated to biotech startups, LaunchLab CERIBio, was full even before its’ recent official opening. The university has already decided to build an additional facility, to meet the need. “We’ll have a much bigger facility at The Bridge, Stellenbosch, smart city development,” enthuses SU Chief Director Innovation & Commercialisation Anita Nel, in an exclusive interview with Engineering News.

LaunchLab CERIBio is a joint project between two SU units – the highly successful LaunchLab tech startup incubator and the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI).

“LaunchLab CERIBio opens a new portal for us, into the biotech startups support space,” she explains. “Investors usually like to run after Fintech startups, because they’re quick to the market. But biotech can have a much bigger impact in Africa. However, biotech needs a lot of investment and has a long time to market.”

Currently, the new facility has a focus on health sciences. The plan is to also develop a focus on agriculture, which is a very important industry in the Western Cape.

“Biotech is very important for Africa,” she affirms. “But Africa is very dependent on the outside world for biotech. For example, we had to import vaccines for Covid. We had the people, we had the expertise, to make them ourselves, but it wasn’t possible because of the lack of facilities and investment into capabilities.”

Construction of the new LaunchLab CERIBio facility at The Bridge will start as soon as it obtains funding partners. The land is no problem – five plots of land at the development were donated to SU and the university has decided that its first project there will be LaunchLab 2.0, as it is being called.

“We’ll keep our current facility,” she reports. “We’ll use it to host very young companies and to support student activities. But once a startup has achieved some development, it’ll move to The Bridge.”

SU LaunchLab is not focused on only incubating startups founded by graduates of the university. It aims at uplifting the whole entrepreneurship community in the Western Cape.

“A win for one university is a win for all universities, in my view,” she says. “University technology transfer offices don’t compete, but meet regularly to exchange ideas and experiences.”

The LaunchLab is operated on a very lean basis, with only four permanent staff.

“I’ve got the best job in the university,” celebrates Nel. “I work with amazing technologists, engineers and scientists, not only at SU but at other universities, too.”