Excerpt
2020, Book Chapter: "Venture capital investment across the world has surged in the past two decades but has been disproportionately directed towards a subset of innovations that can generate returns in a short period of time. More complex technologies that are expensive and time-consuming to de-risk have received relatively less capital in recent years, despite great societal need. This is particularly true for nascent technologies building on new science, but without a well-defined market—so-called “tough tech” ventures. The government’s role—as a customer that reduces market risk and as a financier of early-stage experimentation that reduces technology risk—has been shown to be effective in addressing challenges faced by such start-ups in other contexts."
Non-HKS Harvard Author Website - Ramana Nanda