Tue, 19 June 2018
What brought a successful Wall Street investor and a lauded entrepreneur to Central Ohio? Flavio Lobato and John D’Orazio, Ikove Capital Co-Founders, saw amazing innovation where few were looking. To cultivate technology growth in the Midwest, Ikove Capital developed the Innovation Nursery.
Nurturing the Startup Ikove means “growth” in the Brazilian indigenous language Tupi-Guarani. This aptly describes the focus of Ikove Capital. It is a firm dedicated to venture development. Through a hands-on approach Ikove
Setting Up the Innovation Nursery Ikove looks for regional technology research that has commercial potential globally. They search for babies to fill the innovation nursery. The search list includes universities - Ohio State and Wright State. It also includes Air Force research labs, The Cleveland Clinic, the James Cancer Hospital. A hub of research and development and an ample engineering talent pool offer plenty of choice. Ikove Capital identifies and vets potential projects. They divide projects into three verticals – STEM, Med Tech, Agri-Tech. A fourth is on the way – Food Tech.
The Ikove Capital team offers corporate expertise in finance, entrepreneurship, business acumen. They bring all the resources together that a startup needs to grow and thrive.
From Local to Global Although the research and innovation start in the Midwest, the reach is global. The final company established may be anywhere in the world. The funding that gets these startups into the innovation nursery and through the process of growing is global too. Investors from ten countries sourced the latest round of investing. Over 25 years in business and finance, Ikove founders have established global connections.
Technology growth is a global demand. Ikove’s future is to take the Innovation Nursery to new regions within the U.S. and beyond. Flavio sees global opportunity for the Innovation Nursery. Plans are in the works to offer Ikove Capital venture development in Europe and Asia within the next five years.
Learn more about Ikove Capital at ikovecapital.com.
Five Minutes to New Ideas What assumptions do you make about why your customer buys your product? Are your customers using your product as you intended? Have they found a unique way to customize your product to suit their needs? As in the blog IKEA hackers, there may be some unusual ways to repurpose or customize your product. Listen to Five Minutes to New Ideas. Hear how the owner at my local bakery made use of an HP product in a non obvious way.
The Killer Innovations podcast is produced by The Innovators Network.
Direct download: The_Innovation_Nursery-_Technology_Growth_in_the_Midwest.mp3
Category:Past Shows -- posted at: 5:12am PDT |