Our criteria are set as we are aiming at supporting businesses that have already gone through the start-up phase and demonstrated that they are self-sustaining. Please apply again once you've been operating for 2 years or investigate organisations that specifically support young, new and start-up businesses.
Our focus is black business empowerment, so the Innovator Trust is only upskilling organisations with 51% or more black ownership.
Should you be selected, you are required to commit your time, resources and effort to the programme. The majority of activities will take between 1 to 3 hours on a weekly basis. Further to this, our growth model will look at a total of 1 to 3 year’s development assistance. Development assistance in various forms including training and workshops.
The Innovator Trust will cover most costs. There may be a monthly incubator partner administrative cost that the business may need to cover but these will be nominal.
The selection is not strictly on an annual basis, but as companies' graduate and move out of the programme, we will substitute with new beneficiaries. Once our graduates have completed the programme, they automatically move to our Alumni Programme where we provide them with support.
Apart from meeting the basic criteria, our incubator partners will be looking at compliance, psychometric suitability, growth potential and interest of the owners to take the business to the next level. A combination of documents, interviews and tests are used to make the selection.
If you find the programme is not working for your company, we would first try to remedy the situation and look for alternatives. Failing this you will be able to resign as a beneficiary and no payback is expected. This is included in your contract.
Absolutely. We understand you will be sharing proprietary business information and insights, and this information is valuable and not to be shared. We do like to mention and promote our beneficiaries on the website and on social media platforms however, this will only be done with your consent.
With our incubator partners, we currently have training facilities in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Mooinooi, Lephalale, Rustenburg, eMalahleni (Witbank) and Richards Bay.
Yes, you can include this in your application. However, the Innovator Trust would require an assessment and gap analysis to be conducted to confirm and prioritise this need.
The Innovator Trust will review applications and advise in writing if you have been short-listed within 20 working days. The selection process for each of our partners differs, but is likely to take a further 30 working days until a contract is drawn up.
Please contact the Innovator Trust on info@innovatortrust.co.za for any queries. Alternatively, you can fill in the enquiry form here: https://www.innovatortrust.co.za//contact-us
