The DISF funds designers, inventors, entrepreneurs and product developers with pre-revenue innovative technologies and tech-enabled ideas and products on an 80:20 split. These individuals/businesses are not able to raise funds easily from traditional banks or funding agencies because of the high risk associated with early-stage innovations.
The DISF is a project of the Craft and Design Institute (CDI) with investment funds provided by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and support from the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT).
The DISF is managed by CDI Capital – CDI Capital is a niche emerging impact funder, and subsidiary of the CDI non-profit.
LIQID Medical is an innovative South African company based in Cape Town. They are pioneering a new class of glaucoma devices. Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and they are developing devices that offer the highest potential for cost-saving benefits and preventing blindness from glaucoma. Founder, Dr Daemon McClunan, says the funding from CDI Capital helped take the business from a small desk-based business to a real business with patents awarded, a real working concept device and their first employees. It gave other investors the confidence to partner with LIQID Medical, and they have now grown to a mature start-up with a large team and a wide portfolio of patents and devices in clinical trials already. In November 2022 it was announced that the company had secured an investment of R30m from the SAB Foundation. See here: https://bit.ly/3Wgc0hB