London innovation scale-up expands into Latin America

Innovation scale-up Wazoku has continued its global expansion and extended its reach into Latin America with the acquisition of Colombian open innovation crowd Channge.

Simon Hill, CEO, Wazoku said: “Our portfolio of global clients such as Novartis, Nissan and HSBC are increasingly requiring local support to connect with the exciting subject matter experts or new audiences like students.

“LatAm is a hotbed for innovation and tech development, and we’ve strengthened our local presence as part of our ambitious global plans. By adding this diversity, we are improving and expanding InnoCentive, already the world’s biggest open innovation crowd.”

Wazoku acquired InnoCentive in Q3 2020 and it now operates as the Open Innovation Marketplace component of Wazoku’s Enterprise Innovation Platform. Its 500,000 strong network of entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, and technologists has a success rate of 78%+ in solving challenges for NASA, HSBC, and Shell.

The Channge acquisition further strengthens Wazoku’s presence in Latin America, following its Q4 2020 partnership with Chilean innovation consultancy Transforme.

Chaange founder Nicolas Villa said: “The potential of the crowd is almost limitless, and enterprises in Latin America and beyond are increasingly willing to look beyond their own organisation for solutions to problems and to find new opportunities.

“By becoming part of the InnoCentive crowd, we can offer clients an even greater service, and I look forward to becoming part of the broader Wazoku family.”

Simon continued: “We believe that InnoCentive is the world’s best external crowdsourcing solution and adding a more diverse student crowd to our existing solvers will only make it more powerful.

“It also hugely strengthens our standing in Latin America, and we are now perfectly positioned to meet the growing demand for crowdsourcing and needs of our global client base.”