Managed by the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC), the SPII is funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (dti).

According to Dr. Areef Suleman, the senior fund manager at SPII: "SPII gets around Rand 80 million (US$12 million) annually from dti, and about 50 percent of all applications are approved." The majority of the SPII's funding goes to the software and electronics sector.

"Companies have to have innovative ideas that are also able to sell well after the development stage in order to qualify for the grant," continues Suleman.

A few major criteria are assessed before a company can receive funding from SPII. Companies have to have good managerial skills, the development phases have to be worthy of the grant, companies have to be able to handle the technical and commercial aspects, and also need to have funding to handle business after the developmental phase.

SPII provides three types of grants or schemes.