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.
The PPD Scheme is when financial assistance is provided to a small, very small or micro enterprise. SPII provides a grant of between 65 percent and 85 percent of the qualifying cost incurred during the technical development stage. A maximum grant amount of Rand 500,000 is provided per project.
The Matching Scheme is financial assistance that is provided to SMEs. A grant of up to 50 percent of the qualifying cost incurred during the technical development stage will be allocated to the company. This amount is usually around Rand 1.5 million per project.
Financial assistance under the Partnership Scheme is provided in the form of a conditionally repayable grant of 50 percent of the qualifying cost incurred during the development activity with a minimum grant amount of Rand 1.5 million project, repayable on successful commercialization of the project.
Some of companies that have benefited from SPII's grants include Teletracer, Netstar, PM Tech Holdings, Pragma Products, Rapid Mobile, Sarotoga Software as well as Sappi Manufacturing.
"Although there are quite a few companies that have used a grant from SPII, there are still many that do not know about it. Right now we are trying to create awareness in people, letting them know that, although they maybe afraid to take the risk of starting a company, SPII is prepared to take the risk for them," concludes Suleman.
To find out more about SPII go to http://www.spii.co.za.