Wazoku Acquires US Open Innovation Leader InnoCentive and Raises Additional £1.25M to Support Global Growth
Idea management scaleup creates unique proposition for crowdsourcing, idea management and open innovation on one platform
Idea management software and services firm Wazoku has announced a new funding round of £1.25M, led by Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trust (VCT) specialist Calculus Capital, supported by other shareholders and members of the Wazoku management team.
Wazoku is also continuing its expansion with the acquisition of U.S. open innovation firm InnoCentive‘s assets, in doing so creating the world’s most comprehensive and powerful innovation platform and community. Following a partnership earlier in 2020, it quickly became clear that the combination of platform and network had huge value to innovation-focused businesses and was a unique proposition in the market.
“Adding such a remarkable and proven external crowd to our existing platform means that no other organisation in the world has our reach and experience when it comes to open innovation, crowdsourcing and idea management,” said Simon Hill, CEO, Wazoku. “This is a significant step for Wazoku – further funding and a strategic acquisition means we are better positioned than ever and have a strong and established U.S. presence. Workplaces are becoming inherently open and collaborative, and we can offer the tools, services and collective expertise to help global businesses of all sizes solve problems and create opportunities.”
InnoCentive has grown a global network of almost 500,000 expert problem ‘solvers’ comprising CEOs, PhD students, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, retired technologists and business leaders. This combined brainpower has helped address thousands of the world’s most complex innovation and bid data challenges for organisations such as AstraZeneca, NASA and Enel. InnoCentive has a 75% success rate in solving challenges and Wazoku customers – which include John Lewis & Partners, Barclays and the Ministry of Defence – now have full access to this service.
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