London innovation scale-up Wazoku acquires German R&D partnership platform

Innovation scale-up Wazoku has announced the acquisition of German R&D partnership platform PosterLab, which enables enterprises to scout, manage and collaborate with their innovation eco-system of innovation partners, such as start-ups, universities, corporates, suppliers, VCs and more.

Successful implementation and management of partnerships are increasingly crucial to enterprise innovation and PosterLab was founded by entrepreneurs Sébastien Charles & Santiago Porta in 2019 with the vision to make partnerships in R&D succeed, systematically.

It works with organisations including the world’s largest chemical producer, BASF, multinational optical system manufacturer, Zeiss, and one of Germany’s most highly regarded universities, Saarland University.

“An innovation eco-system is integral to successful innovation, and scouting for partners is one of our most deployed use cases. But it’s astonishing how often such partnerships and projects fail because the partnerships are not managed effectively or visible to the organisation,” said Simon Hill, CEO, Wazoku.

“PosterLab squarely addresses that challenge by allowing organisations to track and manage their innovation partnerships across the business. We’ve been growing our capability with the right strategic acquisitions over the last three years, and PosterLab truly enhances our proposition.”

The acquisition is Wazoku’s second of the year, following the January 2023 announcement to acquire UK idea management firm Idea Drop, and the fifth since 2020. PosterLab provides a clear partner eco-system, allowing users to scout for partners but then crucially manage them effectively, knowing all their innovation partners’ capabilities and the nature of each collaboration.

It also offers easy knowledge transfer, allowing users to access and share projects and results between partners, to facilitate true co-creation and collaboration. Wazoku will integrate the platform into its existing product suite, and it will be relaunched as Wazoku Company Portal in Q2 2024.

“Up to 70 per cent of R&D partnerships fail or do not fully achieve their set goals, which is why PosterLab has always sought to make R&D partnerships successful from the start, ensuring they can bring innovations to market as quickly as possible,” said Sébastien Charles, co-founder and CEO, PosterLab.

“Wazoku has an innate understanding of innovation and knows how important managing partnerships can be. We couldn’t be happier about joining the Wazoku family and look forward to our combined success in 2024 and beyond.”

Wazoku works with global enterprises such as NASA, Enel, HSBC, AstraZeneca and more, helping them innovate at scale. It has seen rapid growth over the past few years as the world faces increasingly large and complex problems and requires a coordinated and concerted innovation effort to address them.

“As the world grows more volatile, it needs more innovative solutions to its many challenges. Whether through acquisition or organically, we are constantly looking to expand our innovation proposition to help address those challenges,” continued Simon Hill, CEO, Wazoku.

“PosterLab is a market leader in its field and will be a powerful addition to our enterprise offering, allowing customers to scout and manage their innovation partners in an integrated manner and, in turn, deliver more efficient and effective innovation.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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