Maxum Incubator graduates celebrate success stories

	The Active Touch team (ltr) Johann Fouche, Catherine Foutier, Rina Bondesio and Melissa Cronje.
	The TMi Dynamatics team (ltr) Tristan McMillan, Keketso Zwane, Priya Tularam, Thivash Moodley, Tristan Martindale and Peter Okunzi.
	COO of SRM Technologies, Johann Havenga, accepts his company’s incubation graduation certificate from Martin Manmohan, Operations Manager of the Maxum Business Incubator.

Another three Gauteng-based high-tech start-up companies have successfully established businesses and graduated from The Innovation Hub's Maxum Business Incubator in Pretoria recently. This follows the graduation of seven companies a year ago.

The event, held in The Innovation Hub Conference Venue, formed part of the Hub's first Business Day Showcase to bring together role players in the high-tech community in the province.

With a combined annual turnover of more than R7 million since entering the Maxum incubation programme, all three graduating start-ups - Active Touch, TMI Dynamatics and SRM Technologies - have successfully commercialised innovative new products in local and international markets.

The three companies, whose business activities range across the ICT, electronics and materials and value-added manufacturing sectors, have all spent under 2,5 years in incubation. With the assistance of business mentors and the enabling, shared services environment at the Hub, their businesses grew to self-sustaining levels that enabled them to exit incubation as successful business entities.

According to Maxum Manager, Dr Jill Sawers, the Maxum Business Incubator has reported a success rate of 83 percent of entrepreneurs establishing sustainable businesses through its incubation programmes during the past financial year. "On average, the growth rate in annual turnover of the 10 companies that have graduated from Maxum since its inception in 2000 has been 78 percent, with an aggregated annual turnover in excess of R50 million. This significant achievement is evidence of a significant return on investment of the Gauteng Provincial Government's initiative to stimulate SME development and economic growth", she said.

Some of the innovative new products and services developed by the three companies include e-learning courses for industry and progress tracking through customised e-learning management systems; simulation and control technologies to improve product development and qualification processes by halving duration and costs of testing for the aerospace, automotive and defence industries, such as reducing the flight testing of new aircraft from one month to one week; and customised, end-to-end supply chain solutions where the technology is currently being used to manage 800 million British Pounds worth of transactions such as sourcing of suppliers, tenders, and contracts.

Active Touch MD, Catherine Foutier, said Maxum had helped the company to develop into a professional business. Current clients include Toyota SA and the SA Post Office, for whom they have developed customised eLearning courses for the sales force and employees respectively.

The local aerospace and defense industries are benefiting from the cutting-edge simulation and control technologies being developed by TMI Dynamatics. Managing member Thivash Moodley indicated that approx 50 percent of their projects are with Saab and Bae Systems, as well as Denel, the CSIR and African Defense Systems. The company has been contracted to perform aeronautical analysis for the integration of external stores for the new Gripen fighter aircraft and to customise the aircrew training simulator for the SA Air Force. "Currently, we are also preparing simulation and control technologies for the automotive industry", said Moodley.

And according to SRM Technologies COO Johann Havenga, the company has concluded a significant deal with the Bidvest Group in Europe to develop a complete, end-to-end integrated supply chain solution. This makes the company the preferred key technology partner for Bidvest's UK procurement services arm. Havenga believes that this deal heralds good news for the local market, where supplier relationship management as a concept is in the early stages of adoption. "Exposure to international expertise and technologies can only strengthen our local industry. The SRM technology, although originally from overseas, will now become locally driven", he said.

In addition to business success, the companies in Maxum also contribute to job creation. "Between the 36 companies that have participated in Maxum's incubation programmes since 2000 when there were only five start-ups in the pilot incubator, 195 jobs have been created in the local economy", said Sawers. Assuming that each job created has resulted in a salaried position of approximately R150k, then Maxum tenants have created taxable earnings of almost R30 million. Nine of these companies are BEE-owned and two are female-owned.

"We are proud to showcase this group of successful start-ups and their significant progress since entering incubation. Sharing their excitement as they developed and launched new products and witnessing their journey from the innovative idea stage to business competence and market acceptance has been a privilege", she said.

Executives from the graduated companies spoke confirmed that incubation helped to leverage their business efforts. Important drivers in the incubation process included access to top quality infrastructure, mentorship, resources and existing networks.

"The results that we are seeing today bear testimony to the success of incubation. It is exciting to witness start-ups on the road of success. This makes our objective of providing an empowering environment for SME development and growth, which leads to job creation and economic growth, all the more worthwhile," Sawers concluded.

For more information on the Maxum Business Incubator, visit www.maxum.co.za.