When Kevin Braithwaite, a serial entrepreneur and director of the incubator RootSpace, tells fellow Silicon Valley types that he's investing in startups in Lebanon, they usually look at him like he's crazy. "Most people choke on their drinks and walk away," he tells Fast Company. As it turns out, they're the ones who might be crazy: An increasing number of investors are looking to post-conflict zones and fragile states as promising future markets.
It's admittedly a radical idea, as a panel of experts pointed out at the Social Capital Markets conference in San Francisco last week. The average poverty rate in these countries is 54% -- enough to scare any traditionally minded investor away. There are obvious risks like instability, the lack of infrastructure, the high rate of loan defaults, and the massive brain drain caused by the expatriation of the more educated and mobile sector of the population.
But a...
It's admittedly a radical idea, as a panel of experts pointed out at the Social Capital Markets conference in San Francisco last week. The average poverty rate in these countries is 54% -- enough to scare any traditionally minded investor away. There are obvious risks like instability, the lack of infrastructure, the high rate of loan defaults, and the massive brain drain caused by the expatriation of the more educated and mobile sector of the population.
But a...
- 10/18/2010
- by Lisa Katayama
- Fast Company
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