Share prices of Nano-X Imaging (NNOX 0.45%) are up by 68% this year so far, and the next few years could be even better for shareholders. With the ongoing global rollout of its unique X-ray machine and pricing model, soon it'll be generating reams of recurring revenue.

That means even a relatively small investment could go a long way toward beefing up your portfolio's value. If you have $2,500 available to invest that isn't needed to pay monthly bills, reduce short-term debt, or bolster an emergency fund, buying Nano-X shares might be a great move. Here's why.

Why now is the right time to buy

If you're thinking of investing in Nano-X, there's no time like the present. The low-cost X-ray machine developer is taking its first steps into the global market for its novel X-ray machine, the Nanox.ARC. The coming years will see its innovative business model undergo a stress test.

With a traditional X-ray machine, manufacturers get paid when customers buy the unit, then again when customers need to pay for maintenance services and replacement parts, and also for mission-critical consumables like X-ray source tubes. The tubes can cost tens of thousands of dollars each, and the devices themselves (and the necessary accessories) can go for up to $190,000 each.

With the Nanox.ARC, customers pay Nano-X every time they use the machine, as well as an annual service fee, but they don't pay directly for the hardware itself. Nor do they need to spend as much on maintenance or consumables thanks to the company's digital X-ray sources, which can be used many more times than a legacy X-ray source before requiring replacement, according to management. That means the Nanox.ARC appeals to a different target market than traditional systems, as it doesn't require nearly as much capital in advance to install or operate.

If the potential of the company's device proves to be everything that its marketing claims, it will have an undeniable competitive advantage in costs, which will enable it to quickly penetrate the nearly untouched market of healthcare systems that are priced out of buying most other X-ray machines.

Analysts forecast its revenue will grow by a whopping 340% in 2024, potentially reaching close to $60 million. In 2022, Nano-X only brought in $8.5 million. So even if the analysts are a bit overly optimistic, and they might be, this company can still expand by a dramatic amount in the near term, making shareholders richer along the way.

Wall Street's projections suggest Nano-X stock could be worth $32 per share in mid-2024. That's 136% more than its price today, which would make your investment of $2,500 worth as much as $5,900 in roughly a year's time.

Nano-X's plan isn't infallible

Right now, Nano-X looks like it's manufacturing enough Nanox.ARC units to supply its customers, and it's also working hard to acquire more customers. But this growth stock faces some key challenges that haven't yet been resolved, which might be a problem for shareholders in the future.

Specifically, because the company plans to compete first in developing countries, it has a handful of different regulatory regimes and healthcare systems to deal with. Its scans may not be reimbursable under some privatized healthcare schemes, and regulators are not guaranteed to concur with the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) recent approval of the Nanox.ARC. It'll need to navigate both of those issues with every country it serves, and there isn't much of a guarantee that the process will get much easier with scale.

Furthermore, it plans to rely on third-party manufacturers to help it serve demand. At present, that isn't an issue, but it could plant the seeds of quality control problems down the line if standards slip.

And then there's the big kahuna: The pay-per-scan business model is a wildcard risk unlike any other it faces. Minor variations in the number of scans that each customer performs each day could result in dramatically different growth trajectories over the coming years. There's no way to know if management's instincts about trapped demand for X-ray scans are correct in advance of the devices being in the wild for some time. 

But as mentioned, even if the estimates about its revenue fall a bit short, the business is on track to experience significant growth, and soon. The risk of the entire endeavor failing because customers aren't as keen on running scans as management predicted is not one to underestimate. Until there's evidence that things are going awry, however, investors should probably focus on the stock's formidable chances of rising sharply over the next year and beyond.