InnoCentive Extends International Reach with New Partnerships

InnoCentive is now part of Wazoku

Waltham, Mass.—June 14, 2011—InnoCentive, the global leader in Challenge Driven Innovation, today announced two partnerships that extend the company’s global reach into the Middle East and South America. The company is partnering with Innoway, a leading innovation consulting and training company in South America, and INNOVABIA, a company that provides strategic and innovation strategy consulting to companies in the Middle East and North African (MENA) regions.

The Middle East and South America represent economies that are looking to innovation to expand their footprint beyond raw materials. In recent years, there have been numerous investments dedicated to research as these regions work to narrow the innovation gap that exists between them and the rest of the modern world. Recognizing the growth potential that exists in each of these markets, Brazil in particular, there is significant opportunity to tap into unknown global talent.

“Organizations take advantage of only 20 percent of their available human talent, which is just not enough to advance innovation and allow an organization to be truly competitive,” said Ari Piovezani, CEO of Innoway. “Innoway was founded in order to exploit that critical 80 percent and provide new levels of innovation. We look forward to working with InnoCentive to bring unique and unbeatable solutions to global corporations in South America.”

Founded in 2002, Innoway provides organizations with an innovation methodology to tap into internal corporate capacities and talents. Serving South America, with a specific focus on Brazil, Argentina and Chile, Innoway enables companies to advance human corporate potential to reach its best possible performance. Innoway’s collaboration with InnoCentive offers regional organizations the opportunity to acquire a level of maturity while overcoming the recurrent challenges a growing organization—within a growing economy—may face.

“Traditional thinking and solutions to problems and challenges is no longer an efficient approach to innovation,” said Osama Ghanim, co-founder and CEO of INNOVABIA. “Business challenges exist everywhere and require a different approach in order to find the most effective solution in a timely manner. By partnering with InnoCentive, we offer our customers the opportunity to open an important dimension to solving critical business challenges.”

INNOVABIA assists organizations in becoming more innovative by utilizing the best international methodologies and practices. By helping companies drive their resources toward innovation, INNOVABIA assists in a rapid adoption of an innovation-based culture at all levels of an organization. InnoCentive’s alliance with INNOVABIA will create opportunities for businesses in the MENA region to become more competitive on a global scale.

“InnoCentive is committed to partnering with companies that have displayed expertise in advancing open innovation in their respective regions,” said Dwayne Spradlin, president and CEO of InnoCentive. “Partnering with Innoway and INNOVABIA illustrates our focus and investment in the growth of global innovation through locally supported efforts. We look forward to the collaboration in these international markets to accelerate problem solving and innovation worldwide.”

About InnoCentive

InnoCentive is the global leader in Challenge Driven Innovation that bridges the gap between great ideas and actual solutions to drive measurable results. Recognized as an open innovation and crowdsourcing pioneer, InnoCentive’s proven methodology, expanding global community of millions of problem Solvers, and cloud-based technology platform enable organizations to tap all potential sources of innovation – employees, customers, partners, and the world’s largest Solver community – to accelerate their pace of innovation and evolve into true Challenge Driven Enterprises. Leading commercial, public sector, and nonprofit organizations such as Eli Lilly, Life Technologies, NASA, nature.com, Popular Science, Procter & Gamble, Roche, Rockefeller Foundation, and The Economist partner with InnoCentive to help them solve their most pressing problems and challenges. For more information, visit www.innocentive.com.