What would motivate a full-time professor to start a university spinout company? For Prof. Adriaan van Niekerk, Director of the Centre for Geographical Analysis at Stellenbosch University (SU), and CEO of GeoSmart Space Pty. Ltd., it is the opportunity to create much-needed jobs while developing products and services that can be used by other businesses who, in turn, can create more jobs.
“It is so important to transfer our research into products and technologies so that our beloved country can reap the societal benefits,” says Prof. van Niekerk.
Geosmart Space was founded in 2015 and was derived from research carried out at SU. The company makes use of advanced space and geospatial technologies, such as Earth observation and machine learning, to model future scenarios and provide information that can improve efficiencies, reduce risk, and inform better decisions. In essence, Geosmart Space develops geospatial products more efficiently through automation, breaking down tasks into smaller pieces, carrying out each task in parallel and then putting the result back together again.
“As a university spin-out, it is essential that our products are of high quality and that our methods are based on scientific principles,” says Prof. van Niekerk. “The highlight thus far has been to increase our staff to four full-time employees, all of whom are former students. Many students decide to work overseas due to the lack of job opportunities in South Africa, thus being able to employ some of them is important to me,” he continues.
The biggest business takeaway for van Niekerk has been the value of listening to advice. “It is indeed a challenge for an academic to run a business. However, thanks to the support of Innovus I am part of a company that contributes to employment opportunities while actively transferring our research into products and technologies. Innovus has high-quality people, with the best intentions to help spinouts succeed,” shares van Niekerk.
Find out more about GeoSmart here.