Apply for GAP Innovation Competition (South Africa)

Categories are in the ICT, Medical, Biosciences, Green and Township economy.

Winners of GAP 2025 will share in seed funding and cash prizes, as well as receive incubation services with technical and business mentors, intellectual property lawyers and access to The Innovation Hub’s network of industry and government partners.

Eligibility Criteria

• The GAP Innovation Competition is open to all South African citizens or permanent residents (individuals, teams and start-ups). Winners of the GAP competition will be incubated at The Innovation Hub in Pretoria, Gauteng (Maxum, BioPark or Climate Innovation Centre).
• The GATE Innovation Competition is open to individuals, small teams and business entities operating from Gauteng townships or have solutions for township economy. Winners of the GATE competition will be incubated at the selected eKasiLabs around the Gauteng province.
• Entries must have potential for broad social impact in Gauteng, through the creation of jobs, enhancing service delivery by government, or improving citizens’ lives.
• Entries to GAP/GATE should be beyond proof of concept or at prototype stage or tried at a small scale, or have demonstrated commercial feasibility, but may not be commercially available prior to the awarding of prizes.
• Entries from established businesses must not have a turnover of R5 million or more in the last financial year.

Conditions of the Competition

• An individual can only be a member of one team applying for the GAP/GATE competition. This is to avoid conflicts of interest between plans as well as a lack of genuine commitment to one particular plan and business opportunity.
• An application will not be considered for the competition if it is:
  • A well-established and funded company with commercially viable technologies business plans and commercialization strategies
  • An Individual or a team member who has won the GAP/GATE innovation competition in the last five (5) years
  • An individual who is part of or is closely associated with the GAP steering committee, advisory panels or adjudication panels, and their immediate families
  • An individual who is already in the TIHMC incubation (Maxum Business Incubator, BioPark, Climate Innovation Centre or eKasiLabs) or was in the incubation program in the last five (5) years.
• At the time of the entry and during the GAP/GATE competition, individuals and/ or teams that have already secured funding from other local and international investors MUST disclose the investor(s), amounts and additional relevant information that will impact their participation on this programme. Failure to be transparent in this regard will automatically lead to disqualification from the competition.
• All selected semi-finalists MUST attend the whole week-long executive education training program offered as part of the competition, to be considered for final adjudication.
• Entrants are not required to be formally registered as a legal business entity to enter the competition. However, semi-finalists must register in a form appropriate to an SMME or NPO to participate in incubation.
• Seed funding will be given in tranches over 12 months in a milestone-tied form based on progress made towards the commercialisation of your innovation and business development. This funding does not constitute an investment with the expectation of equity in the opportunity.
• The seed fund that the winning team receives will only be transferred to the registered company’s bank account, upon agreeing on deliverables. Funds will be transferred in advance for each milestone.
• Prizes are not transferable.

For more information, visit The Innovation Hub.