Innovus: Breaking New Ground, Breaking the Rules and Breaking the Mould

­­­Innovus: Breaking New Ground, Breaking the Rules and Breaking the Mould

Every quarter, Innovus prepares a report for their stakeholders, letting them know exactly how capable the hands that run it are. This short piece will deliver some of the highlights of this year’s final report, and of 2017 to you, our reader.

The meteoric rate of growth of our favourite Technology Transfer Office, Innovus has several important factors, the most important of which is the quality of faculty and students at the institution that Innovus represents. Quality people means better research; better research means a higher rate of disclosures; and the rate of disclosures is indicative of the power of the commercialisation model. In recent years, Innovus, has managed more new patent applications than any other local entity and what is remarkable is that our conversion rate of patents-licences is on par with, or even higher than universities in the United States. In fact, the amount of annual licence income generated since 2009 has grown by almost 800%, to the more than R6m received to date in 2017.

That amount is expected to grow exponentially. If it is proof you seek, you need but read the article a little further in this newsletter on Prof Resia Pretorius, and the 5 patents she has filed thus far in 2017, as but one example.

If you are still reading this with one eyebrow raised, you have but to look at the fledgling innovations we submitted to the TIA Seed Fund this year: a biosensor, an autophagometer, antimicrobial air filters, mobile concussion devices and a guidance needle amongst others.

Along with the financials and fledgling, there have been many major success stories, and the pride associated with them. SNC Nanofibers, Custos Media Technologies and CubeSpace are regularly touted and celebrated in the start-up press for what they’re achieving, and how fast they’re achieving it.

In the last quarter, we’ve seen Bridgiot and their new CEO, Nico Pretorius, sign an agreement with Shoprite. This will help to get Dropula, Bridgiot’s smart water meter, into 100 previously disadvantaged schools, allowing those schools to take advantage of similar water savings (about 90%) that their first school, Hector Pietersen Secondary, saw. Cargo Telematics have recently received funding from EMSS and are rapidly approaching a commercially viable version of their Cargo Strap Monitor Device.

At the LaunchLab, we’ve seen EightStreet Stories, an entrant in the Paid Media Challenge, sign an agreement with MultiChoice as a content provider. Jonga won the Safety Challenge, netting them funding from Santam to further improve their safety solution, and Gift Drop went to market in September with the funding they received by winning the ATTACQ Retail Challenge.

Many hands make light work, they say, and this is not always the easiest job… Each member of the small team at Innovus has a massive responsibility to both the University itself and the innovators they support, and must thus have a rather extensive range of skills and knowledge – technology, different research areas, economics, business planning, patent law and investing. Bolstering this team is the addition of a new Director of Technology Transfer, Dr Marie Talnack, who has worked in corporations, small businesses, universities and federal research labs and her own successful consulting business, and who is making the move from the California State Polytechnic University, where she was their Technology Transfer Director for the last 3 years.

The new alliance with Commercial Services, recently retitled to SUNCOM, will go a long way to further solidifying Innovus, as well as SU’s 5^th income stream. SUNCOM’s Director, Hein Swanepoel has been busy, to say the least, reinvigorating Matie Milk, setting up Maties shops and getting the One Card student card process rolling.

If I had to guess, I would imagine that this short piece encapsulates about 10% of the exciting things happening in and around Innovus. And if 2017 was exciting, next year is going to be mindblowing!