Leila Henderson - 4 May 2004

Playford Capital seems to be in the box seat for future BITS (Building on IT Strengths) funding, as it is the only incubator so far to be given the green light to roll over its allocation.

In Adelaide to open the Connecting Up community IT conference, ICT minister Daryl Williams lunched with Playford staff to tell them the good news.

Playford has been given until mid-2006 to use $5 million in left-over federal government funds, with operational costs to be met by the South Australian Government.

Other incubators have relied on recouping costs from fees charged to clients, with mixed success.

A BITS II announcement is expected as part of next week's Federal Budget, but Mr Williams's office would not confirm the status of other incubators.

Bluefire executive director David Nelson said his Sydney incubator had been given no indication as to its future.

Mr Nelson said Bluefire would put forward a strong case to participate in a second BITS round, should the structure process prove attractive.

Bluefire has about 10 per cent, or $600,000 of its original $6 million allocation remaining - enough to cover basic operational expenses for the next two years.

"The presumption was that the funds were to be used to support innovation and we have honoured that, but the Government also knows that we can't shut up shop on June 30," he said.

"Like all incubators we need a contingency plan to meet our solvency requirements".

Business Strategies International recently took over operations of the Australian Distributed Incubator and its $1.5 million of unexpended BITS funds.

Chief executive Ivan Kaye said ADI had helped more than 300 companies that had great export potential.

The company didn't limit itself to business advisory and seed funding, but helped companies maximise grant funding from schemes such as COMET, Export Market Development and through tax concessions.

"Our only charter is to focus on companies presented at BSI investor forums, because that will get stickiness with the external community of investors and funds," Mr Kaye Said.