The JSE and government’s Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) have launched a four-month pilot to prepare 10 small and medium-sized technology enterprises to raise capital – without giving them grants. The programme was announced at the JSE in Sandown on Wednesday.
“It does not provide participating SMEs with direct grant funding as part of this pilot,” Patrick Krappie, TIA’s executive for innovation enabling, told TechCentral.
“The value of the programme is not simply about providing funding. It is about helping SMEs become better prepared to attract funding, access markets and build sustainable, scalable businesses.”
The Technology Development Programme runs under the JSE’s SME Rise banner and will work with companies in health, agriculture and financial technology over 16 weeks.
Krappie described it as “primarily a business development, investment-readiness and market-access programme”. Participants get support in areas including business diagnostics, growth planning, pitch development and technology commercialisation, and each will be helped to produce a funding-ready pitch pack.
Through the JSE, they will also have access to sector-specific engagements and a market-access day, “creating opportunities to build relationships and explore potential capital and market opportunities”, he said.
“Subject to meeting the relevant requirements, participants may also be considered for JSE private placement or AltX screening,” Krappie said. JSE Private Placements, launched in December 2021, is the exchange’s digital platform for raising debt and equity for unlisted and listed companies. AltX, established in 2003, is its parallel market for small and medium-sized high-growth companies.
Cohort of 10
Krappie said selection was designed to be “competitive and evidence-based”. TIA supplied a database of 43 SMEs, all of which were invited to apply. Sixteen did, and 14 completed a structured 30-minute interview.
They were assessed on innovation, market potential, business readiness, leadership, identified risks and alignment with the programme’s objectives. After moderation, the JSE recommended a cohort of 10, along with reserve and non-recommended candidates, and TIA confirmed it.
The cohort was chosen for its “proven service offerings, operating maturity and commercial potential”. It did not name the companies, which have already attended an onboarding session.
The partnership grew out of “a shared recognition” that one of the challenges in South Africa’s innovation ecosystem is “the gap between developing a promising technology and successfully taking it to market”, he said. “SMEs can have strong products or technologies, but still face challenges around business readiness, access to markets, investment readiness and the networks needed to scale.”
TIA brings experience in technology development and commercialisation, Krappie said, while the JSE contributes capital markets and governance expertise, access to investors, and its networks.
A pipeline of promising smaller companies makes sense for an exchange that has shrunk drastically over three decades. In a TechCentral column in May, Duarte da Silva put the number of JSE-listed companies at about 280, down from more than 800 in the 1990s.
The pilot offers no grants even though TIA is better funded than usual. In February, the agency received a US$72.9-million (about R1.2-billion) settlement stemming from its 2015 sale of a 49% stake in biotech start-up Kapa Biosystems for $4.9-million, eight months before Kapa’s shareholders sold the company to Roche for $445-million. The sum comprises a $39.5-million arbitration award plus interest, and an arbitration appeal tribunal also awarded TIA additional legal costs.
TIA announced in June how it would deploy the money. CEO Titus Mathe said R137.3-million would support TIA’s seed fund and commercialisation hubs and R300-million a fund-of-funds approach to unlock private capital. He said at the time that the funds had been fully committed to a range of interventions but not yet disbursed.
Krappie, who served as TIA’s acting CEO for more than four years from June 2020, said the pilot is also a trial for the TIA-JSE partnership. “It is also an opportunity for us to test a structured model of support that can contribute to a stronger pathway from innovation to commercialisation.” — © 2026 NewsCentral Media
