Wazoku
Founded 2011 Β· 65 employees on LinkedIn Β· 4 known investors
Wazoku is a London-based innovation management company combining an AI platform with the Innocentive open-innovation solver marketplace.
Also known as Innocentive Β· InnoCentive Β· Wazoku Crowd Β· Wazoku Ltd
Founders & leadership
Wazoku was founded in 2011 by Simon Hill and Rosemarie Diegnan.
Investors Β· 4
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Wazoku is a London-headquartered innovation management company that sells software and services enabling enterprises, public sector bodies, NGOs, research labs and academic institutions to capture ideas, source external expertise, manage innovation portfolios and measure value created. Its offering is organised around what it calls Total Innovation, which pairs Wazoku.ai β described as an "Ecosystem Operating System" covering discovery, engagement, collaboration, governance and value measurement β with Innocentive, an open-innovation marketplace of solvers, startups, subject-matter experts and existing IP.
Platform capabilities span AI-assisted trend scanning, technology radar mapping, competitive and patent/IP landscape intelligence, idea capture and crowdsourcing, stage-gate workflows, portfolio prioritisation, startup discovery and screening, ecosystem and partnership management, due diligence, cohort management, ROI forecasting, real-time dashboards and executive reporting. The company has developed xV, a value metric intended to make different types of innovation comparable and governable, and Jen, an agentic AI used for problem definition and decision support. Alongside the licensed platform, Wazoku sells value-added services including managed challenge programmes, startup scouting, market and venture validation, solution development, events and pitches, and ecosystem creation, delivered on an outcome-scoped basis.
At its earlier stage the company described itself as an on-demand idea management software provider targeting the mid-market, with a SaaS product called Idea Spotlight used to capture employee ideas and evaluate them within an organisation.
Founding story
Wazoku was founded in London in February 2011 as a purpose-built innovation platform giving organisations a structured way to capture and develop ideas internally. The name is described as meaning 'great idea'. Early team members included Simon Hill as CEO and co-founder and James King as co-founder; King had also co-founded Find Invest Grow UK Ltd, whose business concept analysis tool the Wazoku idea was a pivot of.
Business model
Wazoku sells a Total Innovation License covering its Wazoku.ai platform, access to the Innocentive marketplace, and separately scoped value-added services delivered by dedicated teams under measurable outcome contracts. Historically the company offered its Idea Spotlight idea-management product as SaaS.
Software licensing of the Wazoku.ai platform plus fee-based innovation services and managed challenge programmes; the earlier business was described as a cloud/SaaS idea management subscription.
Traction
The company reports over 500,000 global solvers and an expert network of more than 1,000,000, and cites customer testimonials from Waitrose, Aviva, UKWIR, General Fusion and NASA. Live Innocentive challenges carry awards ranging from $10,000 to $800,000, with showcases for organisations including Starbucks, Novartis, YPF, UNDP and the Technology Innovation Institute.
Latest developments
Wazoku markets Wazoku.ai as an Ecosystem Operating System combining xV value scoring, the Jen agentic AI and Total Innovation across internal and external ecosystems, and has launched an Innocentive Marketplace where startups, scale-ups and universities can be shortlisted for funded opportunities.
βΈFull profile β market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Wazoku describes itself as a global innovation scale-up and positions Innocentive as the world's largest innovation accelerator, with more than 20 years of challenge-led programme experience and an expert network of over 1,000,000 scientists, engineers, startups and subject-matter experts.
The company positions the combination of a single connected platform, a global external solver and expert ecosystem, and delivery services as an alternative to fragmented point tools, adding a common value metric (xV) intended to make incremental improvements and disruptive bets comparable within one governance framework.
Technology
Wazoku.ai is presented as an integrated platform connecting discovery, engagement, collaboration, governance and value measurement, incorporating agentic AI ("Jen") for scoping and problem definition, AI-powered trend scanning and signal detection, portfolio governance dashboards, and the xV expected-value metric. Ecosystem Management capabilities for structured R&D partnership and collaboration came from the PosterLab acquisition.
Go-to-market
Direct enterprise and public-sector sales of platform licences and services, supported by demo requests and inbound enquiry on its site, plus a two-sided marketplace motion that recruits solvers, startups and universities to the Innocentive community while seeker organisations post funded challenges.
Global enterprises, government bodies, NGOs, research labs and academic institutions; earlier positioning targeted mid-market businesses and SMEs. Named users and referenced organisations include Waitrose, Aviva, UKWIR, General Fusion, NASA's Space Radiation Analysis Group, Starbucks, Novartis, YPF, the United Nations Development Programme and Technology Innovation Institute.
Geography
Headquartered in London, with teams in the United States, Colombia and Sweden, operating as a hybrid, globally distributed business.
History
Founded in London in 2011 around an idea management platform (Idea Spotlight), Wazoku acquired InnoCentive, a pioneer of open innovation and challenge-driven problem solving, in 2020, adding its solver network and challenge dataset. In 2022 it acquired PosterLab, bringing structured R&D partnership and collaboration capabilities that became Ecosystem Management. It subsequently developed the xV value metric and the Jen agentic AI, bringing these together in the Wazoku.ai platform under the Total Innovation approach.
Compiled by commissioned research from 5 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Timeline Β· 4
launches, deals, and filingsInnocentive marketplace launched, allowing startups, scale-ups and universities to be shortlisted for funded opportunities.
Acquisition brought structured R&D partnership and collaboration capabilities into the platform, now offered as Ecosystem Management.
Wazoku acquired InnoCentive, the open innovation and challenge-driven problem solving marketplace, adding a network of over 1,000,000 scientists, engineers and solvers and 20 years of challenge data to its idea management platform.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
βΈResearch sources Β· 5
primary sources listed
- Wazokuwazoku.com Β· web
5 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Wazoku do?
- Wazoku is a London-based innovation management company combining an AI platform with the Innocentive open-innovation solver marketplace.
- Who founded Wazoku?
- Wazoku was founded by Simon Hill, Rosemarie Diegnan in 2011.
- Who are Wazoku's investors?
- Wazoku's investors include Calculus Capital Ltd., Cambridge Angels group, Octopus Ventures, SaaS Capital.