SA Tech Challenge 2025: Prize allocation distributed to six winning innovators
The Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, together with the CSIR, confirms the full distribution of prize funds to the six winners of the SA Tech Challenge 2025.
In November 2025, six Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) stood on stage at the opening plenary of the 10th Science Forum South Africa (SFSA) in Pretoria and were recognised as the winners of the SA Tech Challenge 2025. Today, we are pleased to confirm that the next and arguably most important step has been completed: all prize funds have been fully distributed.
The R3 million prize pool has been allocated and transferred to each of the six winning enterprises. Following the awards, CSIR Group Executive Dr Kaven Naidoo and DSTI Acting Deputy Director-General Dr Kenny Tenza led the formalisation of prize allocations with each of the six winners.
The six winners represent some of the most promising innovations emerging from South Africa's MSME sector. ROC Water Technologies, the grand prize winner of R1 million, has developed pipe freeze crystallisation technology that transforms toxic acid mine drainage into drinking-quality water and valuable by-products. Kasi Money, awarded R750 000, provides digital banking and payment services designed for informal sector workers, gig workers and traders with irregular incomes. Ortho-Design™, receiving R500 000, is a biomedical engineering company producing affordable, high-quality orthopaedic and sports medicine implants locally. Snode Technologies, offering proactive cybersecurity threat management, neutralises digital threats; SweepSouth, transforming access to dignified domestic work through its digital marketplace; and the Marking App Africa, using artificial intelligence and optical character recognition to automate the marking of handwritten exams, directly reducing teachers’ workload, were all awarded R250 000.
What connects these six businesses is not simply technological capability. Each one addresses a structural challenge facing South African communities, from water security and financial exclusion to healthcare access, digital safety, dignified employment and education efficiency. The SA Tech Challenge was designed to identify exactly these kinds of solutions: innovations that are locally rooted, commercially viable and socially impactful.
The SA Tech Challenge 2025 now stands as a completed chapter but not a closed book. An announcement regarding the next edition of the SA Tech Challenge 2026 is expected in the coming months. South African enterprises operating at the intersection of science, technology and innovation are encouraged to stay tuned, as the next edition will introduce a new theme.
