Cape Town - German billionaire Hasso Plattner, best known in South Africa as the owner of the Fancourt golf estate in George, announced a R350 million venture capital fund on Friday, to help local innovators tap into the global technology space.

The junior partner in Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa is German industrial group MAN Ferrostaal, which will use its involvement in the fund to offset commitments arising from its supply of three U-209 submarines to the SA Navy, as part of the arms deal.

Plattner's fund follows the establishment of information technology (IT) billionaire Mark Shuttleworth's HBD Venture Capital, which committed about R70 million in 2000 to fund hi-tech seed companies.

Two years ago, HBD set up a second fund, worth about R150 million, for businesses with some revenue track record.

The Plattner fund aims to assist investments with a "unique innovative offering" in terms of business model, product offering or underlying technology.

The fund's preferred technology investments are in telecoms, mobile applications, media and software as well as clean technology investments, such as renewable energy, energy-saving concepts and similar business segments in the early stages of development.

Plattner, the chairman and joint founder of global software group SAP, said: "The idea is to broaden our spectrum just a little and go beyond just hi-tech software and digital hardware.

"Definitely energy is an issue here [in South Africa] and it will become a bigger one in the future. So how to save energy, how to produce energy from alternative sources is a huge field," he said.

Speaking at the launch, deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said South Africa's energy challenges had created appetite for energy initiatives, particularly those that could be rolled out en masse.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said: "As somebody who has worked in the energy sector … I have never seen a moment like this."

Plattner said he had been discussing the concept of a South African fund for two years, and decided to set it up a year ago.

The fund would operate by "word of mouth", with zero marketing costs, thus enabling savings of between 30 percent and 40 percent.

Companies in Plattner's investment portfolio would be assisted to access global markets through Plattner's and MAN Ferrostaal's commercial and political networks in significant markets around the world.

Their combined expertise lay in the IT industry and industrial solutions, from heavy engineering to automotive and green technology.

Plattner said: "Some companies have great ideas, but they come across with a clumsy product. Then it's hard to compete with companies like Apple or Microsoft or Google."

The deputy president said that the government's existing innovation fund focused on primary projects in the research stage, and did not sufficiently push for commercialisation.

Legislation to establish a technology innovation agency is before parliament, but collaboration with the private sector can ensure "we can get there faster".

With acknowledgements to Ingi Salgado and Business Report.