Can venture capital fund-of-funds boost innovation and regional growth? Several companies in the Midwest are experimenting, including most recently Proctor and Gamble. This consumer behemoth with over $80 billion in annual revenues, spends over $2 billion each year on its research and development. An army of over a thousand PhDs are scattered in 27 labs, trying to find better ways to whiten your teeth or add that much-needed gloss to your hair. The company spends as much as $500 million a year on consumer research alone.
To further boost ‘discontinuous innovation’, its leading the charge in forming, Cintrifuse, a $100 million venture capital fund-of-funds in Cincinnati, Ohio. The mantra of “discontinuous innovation,” as initiated by P & G CEO Bob McDonald is based on the notion of technologies that create entirely new brand categories or new capabilities, rather than just improve an existing product. Creating new categories of revenues streams that are not just incremental, but rather disruptive, is the holy grail for large companies. And crucial pieces toward this goal are capital and wide-reaching sources of innovation — typically more than can be found in a single company.
To read the original article: Can Venture Capital Spark Discontinuous Innovation? - Forbes
