10 South African Entrepreneurs Leading The Charge In Biotech
10 South African Entrepreneurs Leading The Charge In Biotech. These South African entrepreneurs are at the forefront of biotech innovations in South Africa, contributing significantly to healthcare, agriculture, and sustainable development through their pioneering work and research. Below are some of the South African entrepreneurs leading the charge in Biotech.
Dr. Nick Walker
In 2018, Dr. Nick Walker co-founded OneBio Venture Studio with friend and fellow Singularity University Alumni Michael Fichardt. OneBio is South Africa’s only biotech specific VC fund and aims to provide biotech startups with the funding, networks and strategic assistance to take their science from bench-top to the world.
Helen Malherbe
Helen Malherbe, as part of Rare Diseases South Africa, advocates for research and development in biotech to address rare diseases. Her work promotes biotech innovations to improve patient care and treatment options.
Dr. Shadrack Moephuli
Dr. Shadrack Moephuli led the Agricultural Research Council, which conducts extensive biotech research to enhance agricultural productivity and sustainability. Their innovations include genetically improved crops and livestock. He recently founded a company on Strategic Research and Analytics for agriculture and food systems (MoSRA (Pty) Limited that provides consulting services. This has given him space to engage as a member of expert teams. He has also been engaged in serving as a director/board member in some organisations.
Gert van Wyk
Gert van Wyk is the founder of BioCertica, a biotechnology company that combines advanced genetic testing with encryption technology to create Africa’s first digital biobank.
James Ross
James Ross is the co-founder of BixBio. Bixbio is a biotechnology company working to unlock the potential of diverse genetic data in Africa to transform drug target discovery. Africa is the largest source of human genetic diversity, a diversity that is largely unexplored internationally. The company believes that the future of drug target discovery relies on the development of genetic tools in Africa. BixBio focuses on building these tools to solve global genetic problems.
Belinda Shaw
Belinda Shaw is the co-founder of Cape Bio Pharms, a collaborative new venture in partnership with The University of Cape Town’s BioPharming Research Unit to grow pharmaceutical proteins in the tobacco plant.
Simon Hazell
Simon Hazell is a South African entrepreneur, co-founder and Chief Executive of Inseco. He launched Inseco in South Africa in 2018, with one purpose: to help livestock, petfood and crop production industries around the world reduce their reliance on unsustainable ingredients.
Thomas Bartleman
Thomas Bartleman is the founder of Aspyre Foods, a climate-focused biotech startup on a mission to produce affordable, indistinguishable and planet-friendly dairy proteins, using molecular farming.
Jeff Robinson
Jeff Robinson is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of M2Bio Sciences. M2Bio Sciences is a pioneering nutraceutical biotechnology company that delves into the innovative realm of plant-based medicines, healthy food products, and sustainable packaging solutions.
Petro Terblanche
Petro Terblanche is the CEO of Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines. Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines is a Cape Town based biotechnology company strategically directed, supported and capitalized by Avacare Healthcare Group and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa. It was founded in 2014 by Steven G. Reed (PhD) and Erik Iverson (JD, LLM), both of the Infectious Diseases Research Institute (IDRI) in Seattle.
