InnoCentive is now Wazoku.

External Innovation

About Us

We are an innovative SaaS business changing the world, one idea at a time. We’re the global home for all ideas, giving a voice and role to everyone in the innovation process. Innovation_360 gives everyone the chance to see their ideas become a reality.

About Wazoku

We are an innovative SaaS business changing the world, one idea at a time. We’re the global home for all ideas, giving a voice and role to everyone in the innovation process. Innovation_360 gives everyone the chance to see their ideas become a reality.

What We Do

  • Through our industry-leading Innovation_360, we empower organizations to solve complex problems and see the true value of ideas.
  • Every day we help people find, capture, and share ideas to improve our world. Whether it’s widening access to clean water in developing countries or expanding space research and exploration, Wazoku supercharges your ideas into reality.
  • We have two decades of experience across multiple industries. We’ve worked with everyone, from global corporations to local teams, to harness the innate potential in everyone to be an innovator.

Our Values

  • Change the world, one idea at a time
  • Passionate, Customer-focused, Collaborative, Accountable
  • Our mission is to enable problem-solving at scale around the world: no matter how big or small the problem you’re dealing with, Wazoku can help you solve it with industry-leading tools and experience.

Best Workplaces

Wazoku was one of the few first-year entrants to place on the list of 50 in 2021 – a testament to the company’s focus on creating an empowering and healthy place to work. We followed this up with a reappearance in 2022, validating our position as a great place to work for all our staff.

From the very first hire at Wazoku, we have tried to make it a place that anyone would want to work at. Any business is only as good as the people that work there, so it’s vital for our growth to ensure that our employees are healthy and happy.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking to employees about what they want from us and from the workplace and how we as a company can make it happen. To be recognized for this is an important moment for me.

Simon Hill
Simon Hill
CEO, Wazoku

Wazoku scored highly on the Great Place to Work® UK criteria. 100% of employees agreed that people were treated fairly, regardless of their sexual orientation, and that special events at the company were celebrated. 98% of employees said that Wazoku treated people fairly regardless of sex, age and ethnic origin, and 98% also said they were proud to tell others they worked at Wazoku.

See our listing here.

Simon Hill

CEO, Co-founder

Why we do it

Innovation is a positive force for change. Every day we help people find, capture, and share ideas to improve our world.

As a purpose-led, carbon neutral company, we are proud to embody our own messaging when it comes to changing the world.

From natural disasters to new drug development, from solar events to the circular economy, our process is to root problems in the real world. It is an approach that has a proven track record in delivering tangible value for global organizations.

We understand that innovation and transformation might be confusing, complex, and difficult to achieve. Innovation_360 is our platform that simplifies and streamlines innovation practice.

Our journey so far

  • Founded in 2011, Wazoku is both a for-profit and for-purpose business
  • In 2020, we acquired InnoCentive to create the world’s most comprehensive innovation offering. It has since become the first accredited Open Talent crowd: meaning our solvers are part of the premier community for problem-solving.
  • Founded in 2001, InnoCentive was a pioneering business in the use of crowdsourcing for innovation and opportunity scouting. It ran more than 2,000 challenges for organizations including NASA, AstraZeneca, Enel, and VW, boasting a success rate of more than 80%.
  • Our comprehensive offering through Innovation_360 gives you the means and expertise to create sustainable and scalable innovation success, through your organization and beyond.
  • We’ve been named one of the UK’s 30 leading tech scaleups, as part of Tech Nation’s Upscale 4.0! See more of our recent news and blogs.
  • In November 2020, Wazoku announced a new partnership with innovation consultancy Transforme, to bring Wazoku’s platform and services to enterprises across Latin America. Transforme operates as an OEM resale partner of Wazoku with a standalone white-label version of Wazoku’s platform for clients including Principal Financial Group (Mexico and Chile), Inchalam (Chile), Netlife (Ecuador), and ESVAL (Chile).
  • In October 2021, Wazoku welcomed Channge, a Colombia-based open innovation scale-up with the largest crowdsourcing community in the Latin American region.

Eshwari Chandrashekhar

Director, Software Engineering

Our people are what truly set us apart

We don’t only advocate for collaboration and growth for our customers – these are methods for how we work and develop together, too

We’ve built an incredible and talented team who love what they do and where they work. We couldn’t be more proud of how the company has grown and changed since its inception.

As a founder-led business, Wazoku is more like a family than a top-down hierarchy. Our values are grown from our roots, and include:

  • A deep commitment to diversity
  • Making positive social impacts – not just through our work but through the way we run the business
  • A commitment to a more regenerative future
  • A passionate belief in supporting and nurturing our team

Sarah Counts

Chief Operating Officer

We offer heavily discounted packages and licensing agreements for charitable organizations and not-for-profits. Please get in touch for further details.

Our charity partners

We seek to make a positive social impact through our charity partners

  • We select a charity partner every 1-2 years, using our own platform to crowdsource potential partners from ideas across the business. Typically, these are charities who have some personal connection to one or more of the team.
  • In the past, we have partnered with MS Society, The Prince’s Trust, and our current Charity partner is the Anthony Nolan Foundation.
  • Our employees aim to walk, swim, run, or move the distance of the Earth’s circumference in a month – a whopping 24,000 miles in 31 days.
  • Our support includes more than just funding and awareness-raising. We also run a charity hackathon, where the whole company gets involved in solving real day-to-day problems and challenges for the partner.
  • Our charity partners are gifted access to our Innovation_360 platform for 12 months, and then continue to benefit from it at a special charity partner rate for life afterwards.
  • If you are interested in finding out more about this and registering interest in becoming a charity partner, click here.
Visit our JustGiving page to donate

Anthony Nolan

Every day, Anthony Nolan match incredible individuals willing to donate their blood, stem cells, or bone marrow to people with blood cancer and blood disorders who desperately need lifesaving transplants.

1974: With her three year-old son Anthony in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant, Shirley Nolan set up the world’s first register to match donors with people in desperate need.

Now, the charity helps more than three people every day find that lifesaving match.

There are over 800,000 people on Anthony Nolan’s UK register who are helping save lives. You could join it and change the world today, by registering here.

Where we operate

Everywhere! Like so many of our clients in the decentralized world of work, we are now a truly hybrid and global business.

We are headquartered in London, but have offices in Bristol (UK), Copenhagen (Denmark), and the United States. Interested in joining the team? We’re hiring!

Join the Wazoku family

At Wazoku, we believe that every individual can have an impact and create positive change – through the power of great ideas.

See current openings here to apply today!

Benefits and perks

Flexible Holiday

A flexible leave policy which recognises that employees are best able to determine when and how often they need to take time off to recharge their batteries, while still meeting their performance objectives.

Mental Health Services

We've partnered with InsideOut, an on-demand mental health platform, dedicated to breaking down social stigma and opening up the mental health conversation. Everyone has mental health and we couldn't support their mission more. Employees can join at any time.

Team Events

Company offsites, summer & Christmas parties, charity engagement and more. Tune into WazoTV for special company announcements.

Flexible working (flex work hours)

We offer flexible working (flex work hours), as we recognise the positive impacts it has on increasing productivity and reducing stress, as well as promoting a healthy work-life balance.

Perks – discount scheme

We know the right perks are important! We’ve signed up for a scheme that offers free perks and hundreds of discounts across shopping, gym memberships, holidays, learning and much more! Employees can join at any time.

Pension

Investing in a pension is essential to all. We offer an award-winning workplace pension scheme to help you save for your retirement. You’ll be automatically enrolled and have your own personal online account.

We offer these and additional benefits including: leading maternity and paternity benefits, office hackathons, a yearly all-hands meeting for all of our global staff held in London, ThanksBen perks and £30 monthly allowance, UK private medical/dental/vision, endless training opportunities, and much more.

You could help solve the world’s greatest challenges

Become a solver and you will:

  • Make a Positive Impact
    Our Open Talent crowd solvers have tackled some of the world’s most pressing problems, from facilitating access to clean water to passive solar devices designed to attract and kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
  • Promote Yourself and Earn Rewards
    We’ve awarded more than $60 million to thousands of brilliant solvers from around the world. The average award amount is around $20,000, but some customers offer awards of $100,000 or more. However, it’s not just about the financial reward: your accomplishment is guaranteed to attract attention on your CV, social media profiles, and Community profile on Wazoku with badges.
  • Exercise Your Brain
    Challenges are real problems requiring concentration, critical thinking, research and creativity. Developing a solution to a global issue is incredibly rewarding and an unparalleled mental workout.

Visit the Challenge Center today to get started.