By Cathy Mputhia
Vision 2030 recognizes the importance of innovation as a pillar in growing the economy. Invention is key to creating jobs for the youth and spurring the economy.
Any great nation supports this culture of creation among the youth. Successful innovations have also benefited the public once they have been commercialized. For example, M-Pesa totally revolutionized e-commerce in Kenya.
One major challenge that innovators face is little access to funding opportunities. Some had rather invest in opportunities which are low risk and in businesses that have historical records on profitability.
Innovation funding is a high risk venture primarily because there is little historical evidence as to whether the venture will succeed or fail. Innovations have not been tested to understand their market reception.
However, it is for the same reasons that they present the investor with an opportunity to participate in high returns. Returns from successful innovations are very high.
Most of today’s wealthiest people are techpreneurs and other innovators. Here are some examples, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Elon Musk of Tesla and Space X, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Ma of Alibaba. All of these profitable companies attained profitability due to innovation.
Inasmuch as innovation based investments carry high risk, they also carry high returns. It is an investment opportunity for the risk takers. Innovative companies rake in high profits as they have little competition and any intellectual property rights granted may assist them maintain a monopolistic advantage in the market…
