LONDON, July 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- 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.
Wazoku now provides the world's biggest innovation community and
broadest innovation offering. It allows the crowdsourcing of
solutions to any pressing business challenge, all supported by the
features and functionality already found in the Wazoku platform,
Idea Spotlight.
"Our customers have long demanded a platform that integrates
internal idea management with external crowdsourcing," said
Alpheus Bingham, CEO and co-founder
of InnoCentive. "This enables multiple modes of innovation within
the same workflow and on the same digital backbone and the
combination of Wazoku and InnoCentive capability offers precisely
that. No other firm has the experience and capability of
crowdsourcing, idea management and open innovation that this
combined proposition brings. The possibilities and potential are
hugely exciting."
Wazoku's latest investment round brings the total amount raised
to £7.35M and recognises the increasing demand for innovation in
business. COVID-19 saw both an increase in business and a change in
the way in which organisations were using Wazoku, with the quarter
during lockdown (April-Jun 2020)
Wazoku's best ever from a new business perspective and overall
platform activity level.
"The rapid shift to remote working and the need for engaging
dispersed networks, as well as the ongoing need to innovate and
solve problems, has seen a significant increase in demand for both
our idea management and open innovation services," said
Simon Hill, CEO, Wazoku. "We will
continue to invest in new talent in both Europe and the US, and in product development,
but our main focus is on continuing to build awareness of the power
of open business models for driving cost-effective and highly
impactful business change."
For further information about Wazoku, please visit
https://www.wazoku.com.
For further information about InnoCentive, please visit
https://www.innocentive.com/.
PR Contact:
Paul Allen – Rise PR
07515 199 487 / paul@risepr.co.uk
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SOURCE Wazoku