David Fine Award winner develops cold chain logistics solution
- Wits University
The inaugural 2025 winner, Wisdom Mokasi, used his grant to find a promising solution for delivering temperature-sensitive goods like pharmaceuticals.
The David Fine Award gives R100 000 seed funding to an excellent student from the PGDipSc in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship class. It is generously granted by Dr David Fine, a Wits University alumnus and esteemed innovator and entrepreneur. He is also the generous donor of the Angela and David Fine Chair of Innovation at the Wits Innovation Centre (WIC).
Mokasi’s idea during the PGDip resulted in his startup KoldData, which looks to transport temperature-sensitive goods safely for longer periods of time and minimise tamper risk. “We're helping pharmaceutical and agri-food enterprises eliminate costly waste and also ensure the products arrive in a stable and safe manner, while significantly reducing the carbon footprint in tandem,” Mokasi says.
Mokasi has used the Award grant to help develop a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The eventual full prototype will be a cool box container that can keep products cold for longer and survive in tougher environments, like rural South Africa. It will contain a microcontroller, powered by AI, which will be able to sense various data about the inside of the container, including for how long it can still stay cold. Eventually, it will also be matched with an AI-driven platform for whole change management and data analytics.
Mokasi has a background in industrial engineering and comes from a family in the logistics sector. He has run his own logistics company since 2018. This set him up naturally for exploring this challenge during the PGDip.
“It opened up a new world in terms of going for bigger problems,” he says, “trying to apply everything that I've learned and all the expertise that I have into developing a new high-tech solution, which is something I've always been interested in. “
Visiting Professor Surya Raghu teaches on the PGDipSc and co-created the Award. He explains that it is a core expectation of the course for students to develop a strong idea that can be commercialised, and this Award supports the best of these to establish a successful enterprise.
He praises Mokasi and the progress he has made. “He has found the right team to develop the prototype and used the Award towards building this prototype,” Raghu says. ”I believe he can raise the next round of funds needed to move ahead with his idea.”
Thembela Ntlemeza, the Business Development Manager of Commercialisation & Venture Support at Wits Commercial Enterprise, says the Award supports innovation by lowering the inherent risks in starting a new venture. “ Innovation requires capital to progress from concept to a solution that solves a real-world problem, and the David Fine Award bridges that gap in the earliest high-risk stage where very few capital providers will fund a project.”
Mokasi has been working with Wits Commercial Enterprise to identify short- and long-term strategic partners for KoldData and to pitch the project at industry events. “Wisdom has proven to be quite exceptional in both commitment to the project and utilising the Award to progress the technology,” Ntlemeza says.
Winning the David Fine Award catapulted Mokasi’s innovative idea towards becoming a hopefully successful company in the future. “The Award has been game-changing, and it's one of the best things to happen to me,“ he explains.
Mokasi greatly appreciates the support of the university and Dr Fine directly in helping his idea come to fruition. “That was really key to actually having the backing of someone of that calibre, and getting his input, because he's got so much industry knowledge.”
Fine says Mokasi has the right attitude, drive, and willingness to do well in a startup environment. “That grit to make it all happen is so critical to an innovator, not just the idea,” he says. You've got to sleep and eat and dream innovation - everything has to be focused on what you're doing for an innovator to succeed.”
He is also excited about the possible next winner of the Award and praises the applicants for their initiative. “When people have an idea, and they decide that they are going to make something of it, that is special, because that drive is so critical, and very few people have it,” he explains. “I'm hoping this Award will be able to reach out and find those kinds of people.”
The selection of the 2026 Award winner is currently underway, with two shortlisted candidates who will be interviewed by a selection panel including Dr David Fine. The WIC's Acting Angela and David Fine Chair of Innovation, Professor Christo Doherty, says they hope to choose another candidate as strong and enterprising as Mokasi.
“The David Fine Innovation Award winner should be living examples of what PGDipSc students can do if they really set their minds to it, and also blaze a route forward for the young entrepreneurs that the program is designed to produce,” Doherty says. The hope is that the Award inspires future classes and becomes a key component of the course.
Over the next few months, Mokasi plans to build out a full MVP and prototype. While the grant amount was limited in the greater context of start-ups, it has set him up to be connected and supported towards finding future funding.