British research and development funding agency Innovate UK participated in the 2023 South Africa Innovation Summit (SAIS), held in partnership with the Technology Innovation Agency, in Cape Town. In particular, it showcased four South African women-led technology startups, based in Gauteng, which had been identified by the agency last year, as a result of an “intervention” (as Innovate UK terms such competitive programmes) entitled “More than a Woman”.

“Innovate UK has a six-year project, now in its fourth year, called Global Alliance Africa,” the agency’s Johannesburg-based knowledge transfer manager Alana Kruger told Engineering News. “This is spread across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. The intent is to develop bilateral cooperation between the UK and those countries. This is a technology solutions, innovation-focused collaboration. The aim is to create opportunities for both sides and make a socioeconomic difference for the African partner countries.”

The four startups showcased by Innovate UK at SAIS this year were African languages mental health programmes app developer Bare Mind; the Mighty House of Soap, which recycles used cooking oil into soaps and other cleaning materials; mathematics interactive educational games developer Nubian Smarts; and smart technology integration company ProjectOne Engineering.   

But the agency also hosted a SAIS side event. This was the Energy Exchange Symposium, which was a bilateral Anglo-South African forum to discuss how the UK could help South Africa transform its energy matrix, and how the UK could learn from South African experiences and also benefit from South African innovation. The discussions included skills development and the reskilling of workers in the coal sector.  

“The symposium involved academics, big business, entrepreneurs, and researchers,” she reported. “It covered technology, financing, testing (in many areas South Africa lacks the facilities for testing at scale) and how South African companies can pitch their inventions and innovations to investors. Also covered was how innovation companies could secure an input into the updating of regulatory frameworks.”