Inqaba Biotechnical Industries (Pty) Ltd, trading as inqaba biotec™ in Sub-Saharan Africa, is a unique South African Genomics company that was established in 2002 from an idea that was conceptualized in 2000. Inqaba is Xhosa for “rare and precious” and this pays homage to our South African origin. The company premises are based in Muckleneuk, one of the oldest suburbs in Pretoria. In 2010 the Kenyan subsidiary, inqaba biotec™ East Africa Ltd, was opened in Nairobi and we have registered inqaba biotec™ West Africa Ltd in Nigeria in 2014. The initial startup was organized by a venture team of five, of whom three are still engaged with the company: Dr de Gama, Prof. In 2002, inqaba biotec™ was financed through private equity from 30 private shareholders and through a loan from the
Swiss Government, which was fully repaid within five years of its inception. In 2005, the South African Biotechnology trust, BioPAD, took up shareholding in the company. In 2007, inqaba biotec™ started offering genome sequencing using a sequencing technology from 454, which at time was a novel innovation and made us pioneers in offering this service in Africa.Currently, inqaba biotec™ employs over 40 people in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal with plans of creating a network across Sub-Saharan Africa. This will facilitate our ultimate aim of getting better support and logistics to our customers in the field of Genomics as part of our contribution to further develop Science and Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa.
