Grassroots innovators often operate as informal businesses. Given their importance within national economies, however, policy makers would do well to foster innovation in their local context: in 2007, the informal economy amounted to 14.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in China, 45.1% of GDP in Colombia, 25.6% in India, 20.9% in Indonesia and 31.7% in South Africa (Schneider et al., The informal sector employs 84% of the non-agricultural workforce in India, 60% in Colombia, 33% in South Africa (International Labour Organization [ILO], 2011) and 68% in Indonesia (OECD, 2015a).