About

Solving some of the World's biggest problems

There are many types of people in the world and many types of problems that need solving. Since 2001, InnoCentive has helped global businesses, governments, public sector organisations and charities harness the power of a crowd. With over 500,000 Solvers tackling problems from facilitating access to clean water at a household level to passive solar devices designed to attract & kill malaria-carrying mosquitos InnoCentive has become the market leading Open Innovation organisation.

Our origins

The idea for InnoCentive came to Alph Bingham and Aaron Schacht in 1998 while they worked together at the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company. In 2005, InnoCentive was spun out of Eli Lilly.

We imagined a web-based system that would attract hundreds or even thousands of minds to tackle a problem in organic syntheses, more effectively exploring the vast domain of solution space. In later days, as we talked about this “molecule.com,” we came more fully to three realizations: there will always be someone smarter outside of your team or organization; getting a diverse range of fresh perspectives is key to effective problem solving; and asking the right question in the right way is critical to eliciting the answers you need. These went on to be central pillars of InnoCentive.

Alph Bingham InnoCentive Founder

InnoCentive joins the Wazoku family

In 2020, Wazoku acquired InnoCentive, which is now integrated with the Wazoku proposition creating a unique innovation at scale offering. Across over 2,500 innovation challenges, 200,000 innovations captured and over $60,000,000 in Innovation Awards we have proven that it is not always the most ‘elite’ or ‘educated’ or even ‘expert’ minds in a specific field that have the capacity to solve challenges. They can be solved, anywhere, by anyone, at any time.

We know that innovation and ideas are everywhere. What we often underestimate is the power of many minds versus a few. Extending problems out to a wide diverse network rather than a small team of subject-matter experts – can – and indeed will (this is proven) deliver results. There is something humbling and powerful in the fact that ordinary people can contribute to extraordinary things.

Simon Hill Wazoku, CEO, Co-founder

Wazoku - Where Innovation Works

Wazoku is both a for-profit and a for-purpose business. We see innovation and sustainability as core pillar of our business
We believe every organisation can successfully innovate at scale and we’re building the technology and processes to make it possible
We help global organisations to build and sustain an effective Culture of Innovation and successfully deliver innovation at scale
We believe in the power of ideas to positively change the world

Learn more about Wazoku here