Technology venture capital company General Catalyst MD Adam Valkin on May 27 said the flywheel of a successful new and emerging technologies ecosystem is the recycling of capital and talent within the ecosystem.
"This means having successful companies, which allow the founders to start new companies and to invest in other founders.
"This leads to the recycling of insights and learnings and enables people to be mentors and for people to develop into company executives or found new companies in the same ecosystem and invest their gains into the next generation of companies."
Opening borders to skills and expertise is also a fundamental part of an effective technology ecosystem, with many founders of technology companies being immigrants. To successfully start a technology ecosystem, a country must open its borders to talent, he stated.
The digital technology industry, by and large, experienced a major acceleration of progress and development across the world, achieving up to a decade of growth within six months in developed economies.
"This growth in the use of digital systems creates opportunities for entrepreneurs in the digital technology, as well as in many other categories. The current nascent technology trends that are likely to contribute to rapid change are healthcare and education.
"Better technology is needed to make healthcare and education accessible and efficient and allow for better experiences by those who consume it," said Valkin.
An ecosystem also requires consistent investment in the sector, he pointed out.
"The US invests as much as $150-billion a year in the technology and innovation sector. Europe is experiencing a renaissance in attracting professional developers because yearly investment in this area has grown from $5-billion in 2013 to around $40-billion a year. Africa invests about $1.5-billion a year in the technology sector.
"There are steps Africa can take to support technology ecosystems, including regulatory steps, such as ensuring clear intellectual property and tax laws and capital controls to make it easier and less expensive and challenging to scale up a company and for it to expand abroad," said Valkin.
He noted that General Catalyst is focused on early-stage investing, as well as on identifying founders who are passionate and driven to achieve their vision of what a part of the future will look like.
Valkin spoke during the announcement of the digital learning and innovation company SingularityU Exponential Finance Summit.